Dear Fancy-Pants

I always thought of French as a very fancy language.

In French, lots of letters are added to words, but they have no function whatsoever. Their only purpose, as I see it, is to be fancy. Take, for example, “tableaux”. It is pronounced tab-lo. See what I mean? Eaux is just there to fancy it up.

I actually love French. And I have nothing against adornment, whether in spelling or in dress.

Think about dress. All we, both male and female, really need are pants and a shirt. Belts might help hold pants to the right place, but they are really not essential. Scarves, jewelry, teeter-tottering high-heeled shoes – all not essential. But nice. Life is short. Why not add the proverbial “eaux”, even though just an “oh” would do?

Did Ya Notice that I am not picking on the French? Look again at the line above. Even “though”?! Why not spell it tho? 

Ok, ok. I know I am pandering to elementary school spelling bee contestants here. Let’s go back to fancy-fying ourselves.

The earliest found forms of human adornment are over 100,000 years old! Nassarius shell beads were found in Israel. These are the shells of sea snails. So humans have always liked to be fancy.

But, why? And when? Not all the time. Don’t you like to sit around the house in old, ratty sweats sometimes?

On the other hand, those old, ratty sweats begin to grate on our nerves after a while, and we begin to want to dress nicely again. And the search for the sea snail shells begins anew.

But not too many sea snail shells, or you will be called “Fancy-Pants”.  BTW, “Fancy-Pants”, as a description of someone, was first used in 1930 in a letter described thus: “'Dear Fancy Pants' writes someone from down in Texas."

Well, this is just a stream of consciousness about Noticing how we like to be fancy sometimes.

So, what percentage of your time are you fancy and what percentage are you defiantly lounging in sweats? But, pay attention here: If your sweats are Designer, they are fancy and cannot be counted as crummy, old sweats.  Do not pretend to be a slob if you are also wearing snail beads.

©2014 Margery Leveen Sher

MARGERY IS AVAILABLE TO KEYNOTE YOUR MEETING OR CONFERENCE with a motivational talk peppered with both startling wisdom and humongous laughs:

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Margery Leveen Sher is a speaker, writer, and entrepreneur with decades of experience as a consultant for major corporations and government agencies.  She is the founder and Chief Noticing Officer of The Did Ya Notice? Project, and is currently writing the definitive book on Noticing.