Much Too Much

Ever have that experience where a familiar word one day suddenly sounds foreign? Not only strange and alien, but actually ludicrous and implausible?

For me that word is "much."

"Much?"

Just listen to it: How much? Not much. So much. That's too much. Does that hurt much? Pretty much. Thank you very much. I ate too much. Do you ski much? Not as much. How much is that? Not too much. Oh no, that's way too much. How much did you expect? You can never have too much.

Much!!!   It's too much! Do you hear it? I thought as much. Doesn't it sound absurd? What the hell is "much" anyway? Does every language have a much equivalent? Could we live without much? Could we go a whole day without saying it?

Try expressing sincere gratitude. "Thanks a lot," sounds sarcastic. You almost have to say "Thank you very much." What else could you say?

How do you get rid of much? You're pouring coffee and you want to know when to stop. Or someone is cutting you a slice of cake and they are slicing it too thick. How much? That's too much. Not so much. It's endless!!

How much is much anyway? When does something go from being enough to becoming much?

What the hell does much even mean? (No, I am not going to give you Webster's definition; any time you read a column that begins, "Webster's defines the word 'citizen' as..." trust me, you are reading a lazy, cliched writer who hasn't given much thought to being creative. Argh! That drives me nuts, too!)

At bedtime the other night, Kevin asked me, "Daddy who first invented words?" While I was mulling over this latest imponderable, he added, "And what was the first word they invented?" We talked about this second question, and came up with several ideas. I especially liked his suggestion of "Look." So now my imponderable as everybody, myself included, is muching away all day long is, "Who the hell coined the word, much? And what are the alternatives?" Cause I'm all muched out.

Don't even get me started on "such."

Postscript:   I know you'll ask, so I'll answer you: "much" occurred 54 times during the first one hundred entries of this blog. Is that too much?

(Yes, I know, it also appeared 40 more times in this 400 word post alone.)