The old family motto came from a comment by my mother:
We're not crazy; we're just mean.
Too true. But since I've either disowned my family or been disowned by them (and good riddance either way), I want a new motto. Today, in a text to my wife, I may have hit upon it.
If I'm going to be a fluffy pink poodle with purple sequins, I'm going to do it the right way.
Context might help you understand it, but why worry about that? Should probably make it first person plural, though....
-The Kitchen Drawer
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Was there an informal motto in your family of origin? Do you have a personal motto? I don't know if this counts as a motto, but my go-to saying is, 'It could be worse.'
17 comments:
My family motto was "Hey, grab some beer while you're out." and also the twin classics: "I'm just resting my eyes." and "Woah, how long was I out?"
I got mine from a Mel Brooks movie many moons ago: "Hope for the best, but expect the worst."
How 'bout, "You can laugh or you can cry, but it hurts a lot less if you laugh".
(there's also, "You'll never appreciate how normal your family is until you meet your in-laws")
Of course, The Blonde has her own mantra, "Ohell, ohell, ohell"
I better get movin'.
And that's what I'm telling myself right now.
Because I said so.
Having a family motto seems a bit old-fashioned, and perhaps a bit pretentious.
Though in all fairness, peasants used to be forbidden a coat-of-arms and now a single citizen can maintain an arsenal capable of taking down an entire formation of mounted knights at full charge.
Progress.
Perhaps I should add that a family motto is not very much at all like a catch phrase.
Pretty sure about that.
Bazinga.
"Stir the sauce." There is a scene in Goodfella's where Henry Hill obsesses about stirring the Sunday sauce, or "gravy" as those idiot Jersey dagos call it.
I've got four:
1) "When something goes wrong I'm looking for solutions, not scapegoats"
2) "We aren't lost, we're exploring"
3) After a particularly difficult day of trying to fly from LAX to Chicago on Southwest, our flight stopped in PHX, OKC, St. Louis and Detroit (twice!) we ended up stranded overnight in Little Rock. The motto: "It could be worst - it could be Little Rock"
4) "When in doubt, eat yourself into a coma"
I will give you something to cry about.
Just be lucky you have hair/hands/feet, etc.
They're just jealous.
Go play in traffic.
Go peddle your papers
You know you were adopted right?
"Never Give A Inch".
Actually, that was the Leland Stamper family motto in Ken Kesey's book "Sometimes a Great Notion", but they had a better family than I did, so I will use theirs.
My mother loved "If you can't say something nice about someone, say nothing at all."
Alice Roosevelt Longworth turned that on its head with "If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me."
I think Alice won the day.
Lydia, the first one was definitely a favorite of my mother's.
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