Sometimes I forget how many people don’t have a clue what I am saying when I pepper my speech with Yiddish phrases.
That came out after I made a presentation and someone said if I use the common vernacular I will get more buy in for my ideas.
I asked him if he could help me out and tell me what words I had used and he said “mishegoss, shmata and meshugeh.”
If those were the only three words he heard out of 15 minutes I might need to start a new career as a cure for insomnia or the voice for white noise.
I made a point to confirm whether my fear was correct and learned he had heard everything but was focused on trying to understand what the three words meant.
Mishegoss and meshugeh were a total loss for him but he thought he knew shmata.
“What is the secret of the shmata? It is some kind of food you eat right?”
I laughed and told him it wasn’t something he was likely to be interested in consuming unless he was trapped under something heavy and had no food.
Even then I suspect it wouldn’t occur to him to actually try forcing that down the old gullet.
Strange Dreams
My dreams have been particularly wild and vivid though I haven’t remembered too many specific details.
The most frequent occurrence is waking up uncertain of where I am and wondering if I have been traveling.
Though I do remember one in which I was in my old apartment so as to avoid being exposed to Covid.
I try not to buy trouble or give any extra weight to things like that without having more to go on.
Call it a balancing act between going with my gut and evaluating actions and events after they actually happen.
Most of the time it works pretty well, but there are moments where I have to decide if the siren going off inside my head is intuition or because I bumped into a cabinet.
It got me thinking about a bunch of things and I thought about the quote below and whether my daughter would appreciate it.
Because as she prepares to head to college I have tried to give her a few more nuggets of wisdom.
She has a plan for her future and that is awesome but I want her to recognize that if she goes a little further down the current path and doesn’t like it she can always change.
No need to paint yourself into a corner if you don’t have to any more than the need to not take a position because you fear being locked into one thing.
There is a middle ground to be had, if you have the courage to take it.
Am I a schmuck for enjoying your shtick? Ah, I know bupkes about Yiddish.
I am impressed. You MOT or have just had lots of exposure to us. 😉