Duncan Christie Miller
Lent. Four Letter Words
There are some four-letter words which I find a wee bit troublesome – but then, some are GOOD or VERY GOOD.
For example, I am distrustful of people who announce that they are ‘FINE’. What a sloppy and anodyne use of that word. Few of us are at any one time FINE, so why not give a truthful answer rather than fudging it?
I often hear parents announcing, ‘STOP THAT’. These two four- letter words seem to me to be very confusing. To a 4-year-old they are tantamount to a challenge. Stop What? How? Why is it wrong? Anyway, it is fun and surely, I am allowed a little bit of fun? I’ll do it again just to be sure …
The word MEAN is a horror. How awful ever to have that attached to you. Careful and parsimonious may be acceptable. But not MEAN.
JABS – OK, I have added an S to make the four-letter word, but, honestly, why JABS? The word is a horror story in its own right. Who wants to be jabbed? Vaccinations or inoculations sound calming and professional – not JABS please.
And how about the words DAMP and GREY? They are dreadful – the Scottish ‘dreich’ is much better as you feel emboldened to survive a dreich day with a welcome DRAM and a haggis. Well, perhaps not a haggis but you know what I mean. Let’s drop DAMP and GREY please.
There are some brilliant four-letter words – DAWN springs to mind. And LOVE is pretty useful too. LEAP YEAR makes some lonely bachelors happy. Some people will WARM to SOFA. And how about COSY? TUCK SHOP will make you happy too.
BABY. I rest my case. It just makes you smile.
Like GRIN. Go on, try it – say smile and just … GRIN.
Overall. Four-letter words are like LIFE – some good, some not so good.
And now we are into LENT. 40 days of abstinence and self-denial. They are last things we need right now. Let’s have a surfeit of positives, an abundance of pluses not minuses. I was speaking to a friend recently who was feeling a wee bit low. She is now amassing her daily total of 25 pieces of GOOD NEWS.
And that, in itself is … GOOD NEWS.