I’ve always been challenged to “say what I mean and mean what I say,” but, clearly, I am not living up to that challenge. Despite my best intentions to not use the current lingo in my speech (after all, I am a proper English teacher), I find myself using “I’m over it!” far too often.
If I were in the company of “The Princess Bride’s” sword-fighting Spaniard, Inigo Montoya, he might say, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Instances where I might say (hypothetically, of course) “I’m over it” include:
- when the kitchen that I cleaned just moments ago is already a mess
- when additional demands are added to an already full day (or assignment)
- when the traffic is so bad the roads are like parking lots and making me late
- when a college graduate plays video games instead of searching for a job
- or when a teenager argues instead of just doing what he is supposed to do
But when I say “I’m over it!” in those (hypothetical) cases, I don’t mean it. What I really mean is “I wish I were over having to deal with this!” or, maybe, simply, “I’m sick of this!”
When I was mulling over that deep statement, an old (again, deep) Girl Scout chant came to mind:
Goin’ on a bear hunt
Gonna catch a big one
I’m not afraid (shake head no)
What’s that up ahead (shade eyes with hand, look around)
A field:
Can’t go around it,
Can ‘t go under it,
Can’t go over it
Gotta go through it
It’s those last two lines that strike me as wisdom, “Can’t go over it/Gotta go through it.”
As I think about all those “I’m over it!” aggravations in life, I realize that the only way “over it,” really, is to go through it. That may mean resigning myself to a dirty house or assigning cleaning duties to others (and then following them around until they do them…), saying “No, I’m maxed out and can’t possibly add anything to this day,” sending a text to alert whomever that I am stuck in traffic and then enjoy the slow ride, charging rent to that college grad to give impetus to job searching, or taking away a privilege or two (or three) from an argumentative teen.
It may mean I learn how to speak the truth in love. It may mean I learn to turn to the God of love and seek His strength (finally!). Or it may mean I continue to hide my feelings by communicating with sarcasm or writing public blogs never read by the people who should read them…
However I choose to deal with an aggravating “opportunity,” I do have to go through it.
“I’m over it!” is just wishful thinking.
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(And Cindy, if you’re reading this, I also thought fondly of “Little Rabbit Foo Foo,” Henry and his holey bucket, and the “Austrian Yodler,” from the days when “gotta to through it” was an adventure and “I’m over it!” was just a phrase of the future…)
All Things Work Together 