My Word ! - An old and very worn-out love

That one is an expression to which I can relate ! Simply looking at it here on this page causes complete recall of having often enough said it out loud, infrequently when alone but on multiple occasions when in the company of others. At those moments my companions had, like me, been startled into states of amazement, surprise, consternation, or delight that made for release of adrenalin and the yelling of “My word !”.

Yes. That expressly expressed expression was one that I really wore down and used up over the years during which I hauled it here and there among other gadget-y things in my quiver. Every now and then I would extract it and fire it out into the world. It was a handy thing to have close at hand, even though, I suppose, the hand was not the part of the anatomy used for expression-firing. As so often happens to critters, you and me, we say things and say things and say things and, all of a sudden we get old and we get weary of saying the same stuff time and again. When that “sudden” hits, you may even hear us saying, “My word !”. (See what I mean?)

That posed a question. What do I do now that I have come to understand it was time to discard the use of that “My word !” expression? There are times when a person must be able to reach into the ready sack and grab a non-cussing expression in a big hurry. Surprises, shocks, amazement, and the like, can be thrust onto any of us at any moment. We must be ready when the need arises, when the moment is there – sort of like in those ads on the TV that show want-to-be-mating pairs ensconced in twin bathtubs installed in the front yard so that they might be able to recognize the “moment” brought on by bathing, holding hands, and gazing off into the sunset. Those advertising geniuses figured things out much like I did and as did the Boy Scouts years before we did (“Be prepared...”).

Writers are not in great need of such expressions during their writing, unless of course the writer hits the wrong keys and something really untoward pops up on the paper or on the screen – or maybe the chair falls over backwards or the dog comes by and pees on one of the shoes or the coffee is way too hot and blisters the tongue. At the eruption of such an event, even writers have to have something to say. Around here, that something had best not be a cuss words. The boss already caught me on that one many moons past. You live and you learn, right? “My Word!” worked really well for years and years. The problem with it is that it is completely worn out now. Its warranty expired a long time back. Replacement is truly required.

Writers are supposed to be able to solve word problems, and that is what we have here. The words under discussion, as has been appropriately noted, are worn out. A replacement expression is needed. Any writer worthy of the title should be able to drag a good replacement out of the keyboard. Testing would consist of rolling the word sounds around the tongue and firing them out into the world. Piece of cake !

True enough, the task was easy enough to describe, but a lot more difficult to complete; that is, until I got smart and let the keyboard help me.

Now I have a new expression to carry around. It is easy to remember, too, but if I ever forget how it goes, all I need do is to glance at the keyboard. There it is, right below the number key row, nicely spelled out and easy to pronounce.

“My qwertyuiop !”