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| Deb and daughter Cricket at Canadian Niagara Falls |
The masculine sex has finally found their answer to the female’s long-time, cover-all-sins catch phrase, “Bless her little heart.”
It’s long been amusing to me how women – especially southern gals – can say anything they want about someone, no matter how catty, scathing, or gossipy, and as long as they end it with “Bless her/his little heart,” it’s completely socially acceptable.
It’s the vocabulary equivalent of ketchup.
One of my college gal pals from Alabama was the queen of this acquired skill. She could roast a rival crispy over an open verbal fire but because she always closed with a smile so warm it could melt butter and gushed a “bless her sweet little heart,” no one took offense. Quite the opposite. We even considered her extraordinarily compassionate to be blessing all those hearts all the time.
And now I see males have finally gained equality. They’ve taken up a slang phrase that enables them to disagree, speak their minds, spew venom, and even to ruthlessly ridicule without apology. And it’s not only publicly acceptable, it’s considered completely hip. Ultra-cool. Tooled. I’m just sayin’…
In case you’re not completely hip, ultra-cool, or tooled, I’m not just saying nothing here … that’s the phrase: “I’m just sayin’…”
It’s all over FaceBook and Twitter, used by women too, but I notice it seems to be more prevalent among guys. And rightly so – how many of the muscled, macho, hairy gender can get way with “Bless his tiny, mangy, blood-sucking heart” when they disagree with someone? Now they can rent, tear, and rip apart other people with a smile on their face just like us girls.
Recently I’ve seen statements like:
“That’s the stupedest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m just sayin’…”
“You can’t believe anything he says, he’s such a liar. Just sayin’…”
“You’re not really going out with her? Just sayin’…”
It might behoove us all to remember one of my favorite scriptures about now: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” No, wait. Oops. That’s the gospel according to my mother.
Actually, it’s Proverbs 21:23 (NLT): “Keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.”
Now there’s some sage advice. Plain. Wise. Always hip.
And if you refuse to heed it, you deserve to be stung by ten thousand angry bees and swell up bigger than the Good Year blimp.
Just sayin’ …
