No! YOU LOOK!

"Look sweetie! It's a rainbow."


That is the meaning I attach to the word 'look'. One person is sharing a visual element of life with another. I think I'm open minded enough to allow the language to evolve. In fact I hope to have contributed to that end.


And yet, I'm not without my objections to change, especially if that change represents the supercilious copying of mindless linguistics from other cultures. The U.S. news media in the past decade has become comfortable using the phrase, "he's gone missing." It's bad enough that Bill and Jim and Mary and Tamisha "have gone missing." But when we add the pronoun 'IT' to the list, it gets a little silly. Come on now. How does IT go missing? (Well there was that IT gal/guy on the Adams family. He/She could probably go missing.) But beyond that? I know of few "ITS that have had either the passion or intellectual inclination to "GO MISSING." But what really honks my horn is that we've just borrowed the phrase from the Brit's who've probably moved on to something else by now. Come on you yankees. Get original. Let's hear some "VALLEY GIRL."



But let me not stray too far from the foam. That would be the foam dripping off my chin when I hear a politician start his speech or 'point making' with the word , LOOK! Does he/she want us to shade our eyes so we can get a good LOOK at the rainbow?

Their LOOK in fact has nothing to do with eyesight, or from my perspective, vision.


True, it's nothing new to us like "gone missing." There are few of us alive today that haven't heard from a parent or teacher the phrase, "now you LOOK HERE young man/lady." There is seldom a rainbow involved here either.


(Wouldn't we have had a lot of fun had we responded to that demand literally! I think I'll try it one of these days.)


But here's my gripe. I can't tell you which of the Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates started it, but let me be on the record as really resenting the fact it crept into the rhetoric of the campaign. Shame on you Senator Mc Cain, Vice President Biden, Governor Palin and yes, you too, Mr. President.


The LOOK you speak is universally mean, rash, defensive, and worst of all....? It is condescending! JUST STOP IT ,OKAY...I MEAN IS THIS THE REACTION YOU WERE LOOKING FOR FROM, LET'S SAY, PEGGY?




Let me once again go on the record, declaring this time for your sake, this is definitely NOT the REACTION you want from PEGGY.


Now that I've said all this? I am about to make a 180 degree turn and very much need you to LOOK!





Yes, it is ME. Life long family and friends must be in shock. I think there were a few times on three or four day hiking trips where I'd not shaved. But you'd have never known it. There wasn't enough pigment in my facial hair to open a lens.


Ah, but this time the GRAY is having its SAY. It's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it. As much as I enjoy our interactive opportunities, don't send me your vote. Peggy has already given me her thoughts whilst handing me my razor.


But this is an extremely personal issue. It has nothing to do with identity, or insecurity or MACHOCICITY (recently coined english word meaning 'tough guy'). It's like sketching, or painting, or sculpting with one's face, as if that face were a piece of paper, canvas or a hunk of marble.


Anybody missing the old me? Oh, I'll be back. I'll get bored with the mission, and keeping it looking neat is a lot more work than shaving it off every day.


LOOK! I think I see a rainbow.