The Noes Have It

Oh Yeah

No fat

No cholesterol

No mortgage

No bills

No 1040

No IRA

No IRS

No 401K

No SUV

No PTA

No wonder

I could dance

I thought we should spend today celebrating noes. Noes, noes, wonderful noes! There are so many different kinds of noes in the world, don’t you think?

First there are the noes associated with rejection. We've covered them here previously, and in my opinion, those are the noes you can largely ignore.

Then there are the noes allied with independence. If you’re a parent you know exactly what I am talking about. I remember a morning when my dear, sweet, charming, and docile 18-month-old boy awoke, stood up in his crib and shouted “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” at the very top of his lungs. And so it began… the terrible twos a few months early (that kid has always been an over-achiever).

Of course, there are those parental noes, too. The ones related to any danger that could befall your once sweet, charming, and docile 18-month-old boy. My husband and I had to say no so many times regarding the electrical outlets that our children took to calling them “no-noes.” In fact, they referred to outlets as “no-noes” for so many years that we once fretted they would head off to college and say, “Excuse me, could you please direct me to the nearest no-no? I need to charge my iPhone.”

There are also those “positive” noes associated with advertising. As in – NO FAT! NO CHOLESTEROL! NO SUGAR! NO FLAVOR! Sorry, that last one was mine and would be an unlikely find in advertising.

And what would we do without the “NOOOOOOoooooooooooo!” linked to Luke learning that Darth was really his father?

PROMPT: Tackle those noes today! The noes that mean no. The noes that mean maybe. The noes that mean What the H...? What does no mean to you? What image or story does no evoke? Create. Create. Create!

And NO procrastinating!