In the history of word-stuff, the word ‘stuff’ has gotta be one of the all-time best. I don’t know how it translates into other languages, but the concept of stuff remains the same; it’s one of those all-encompassing, universal language kinds of things, undoubtedly going back to caveman days. I can almost hear it…
“Need food stuff”. “Need fire stuff”. “Dinosaurs make big piles of….stuff”. Or as the CaveMom asked her CaveTeenager….”What did you do today honey?” Answer: “Stuff”. (Teens have been using one-word answers for a LONG time….)
Look up the word ‘stuff’ in the dictionary and it becomes clear that even Webster doesn’t really know how to define it. Materials. Personal property. A literary or artistic production. Substance (the stuff of greatness). Subject matter (a teacher who knows her stuff). The liveliness of a baseball pitch (he had good stuff tonight). And on and on it goes.
You can stuff your suitcase, you can stuff your fridge. You can eat too much stuff and be stuffed. If you’re on top of your game, you can even strut your stuff. Do you have some great, philosophical ideas? That’s deep stuff. Some people make stuff, some people save stuff, and most of us like free stuff. Is your place getting cluttered? Throw away some stuff. Of course, the very concept of our homes, in the words of the late, great George Carlin, is that it’s simply a place for our stuff!
I could go on about all kinds of stuff now, but you get the idea. Right now I need to do some stuff and eat some stuff before I go out and do more stuff. Thanks for reading. Sometimes I just like writing stuff.
