The "F" word

The word that used to be uttered only by drunken sailors is now an every day word. I may be a bit of a Susie Sunshine, but I'm no prude. I've been known to cuss up a blue streak in my life. I am not proud of this kind of behavior, but I understand that when you hit your thumb with a hammer, there are only a few words that will actually make you feel better. The F-word being almost as good a remedy as a kiss from mom. Yet, even I was a little shocked to hear a young girl in the grocery line yesterday say to the older woman she was with (her mother?) "what the 'F*#!*' is wrong with you?" Yikes!

I saw the same girl a few minutes later, waiting near the parking lot. Perhaps for the mother to bring the car closer for said younger woman to load the groceries in the trunk, who knows? I can only surmise that this girl was having a bad day. She was not smiling; in fact, I got the distinct impression she might punch an innocent bystander in the nose as easily she could cuss her mother.

I've tried giving this cusser the benefit of the doubt. I know I've been mad enough in my life to say the "F" word and more. Perhaps she wasn't feeling well. Maybe her mother had just told her some upsetting news. Maybe some other girl had written a nasty-gram and posted it on U-tube. Still, I feel sad for a young person who looks and acts so totally unhappy.

Was it a "f"luke or seredipity that just as I'm up to writing about the letter "F" I came across one of my children's books entitled "Fun is a Feeling"? It's a happy little book full of wisdom and "f"antasy and "f"anciful illustrations.

The story's enlightened main character is a smiley-faced juggler wearing purple pants, a Bob Marley hat and pointed fairy shoes. According to this wise man who is part acrobat and part psychotherapist:

"Fun isn't something or somewhere or who;

It's a feeling of joy that lives inside you."*

Then he goes on to explain in a don't-worry-be-happy kind of sing-song rhyme, that "fun can be found wherever you go."

"It's all what you make it.

It's all what you see.

Only you can create how you want it to be.

The next time you're bored make a smile from your frown,

Just stand on your head, and you've turned it around!"

Or, you can follow the advice of Miles, in Risky Business, who as I recall danced in his underwear, not pointy toed shoes:

"Every now and then say, "What the f*#!k."
"What the f#!*k" gives you freedom.
Freedom brings opportunity.
Opportunity makes your future. " **

I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, that girl at Publix is going to have some kind of future.

Some other "f"un "F" words:

Fahvergnugen
Frick and Frack
falafel
faffle
faerie, faery, fairy
farkleberry
fiddlefaddle
fastidious
festive
firecracker
fudge
fiddlesticks
fart
forklift
fedora
fox
Fiat
flacid
flamingo
My new "f"un "f"riend "F"ather Georges singing happy birthday to my sweetie in "F"rench (also in Arabic, and Italian!) It was "f"antastic!

"F"arewell for now,
Merry ME

* Fun is a Feeling,Chara M. Curtis, Illumination Arts Publishing Company, 1992
**Memorable Quotes from Risky Business. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086200/quotes