Fair to Midland

I like colorful language. Not the vulgar kind which is sometimes referred to as colorful, that is colorful in broad harsh strokes like spray paint on playground equipment. I like descriptive and colorful language of metaphors and similes, figure of speech and idioms. Language that uses imagery to convey a meaning. Language that needs to be unpacked.

My daughter Emily on the other hand dislikes idioms. She wonders why she should wait for the cows to come home or why she would want to knock on wood. And what difference it would make if she did. She says that all are useless except her favorite - Whatever floats your boat.

Recently, I decided it was time to start a new blog. It was time to have a title that reflected my life now and not my life previously. While I have never been much of a feminist, if in relation to my name, I was to peel away everything that connected me to a man. All that remains is Fara Linn. And so I wanted to incorporate that into the title of my new blog.

But Fara Linn is boring so how much better to add a little colorful imagery to the title. With the addition of two small words, I discovered I could create an idiom (albeit a bad play on words). And after thinking, I came to decide that in fact it was descriptive of what I would like the blog to be.

"Fair to midland" originates from weather reports in England. It referred to the weather being fair from the coast to the midlands. The idiom has evolved to mean that something is neither good nor bad. So when someone asks how you are if you are neither good nor bad, you can respond with "I am doing fair to midland." It has of course, been shortened and really sounds more like "fair to middlin'"

After several years of high stress, turmoil and change, I hope I can say "fair to midland." In fact, my happiest memories are the small things, the things that are neither great or terrible. It is having dinner with my kids at the table. It is laughing with Emily while we drive in the car. It is listening to my kids sing. It is sharing fries with a friend at Denny's (even better if that friend thinks I am nifty). And it is waking up to birds, having a job I enjoy, a church family who holds you close.

And so I hope to share my "fair to midland" moments here and maybe even some "it's the bee knees" moments or some "axes" I have to "grind." And all the while exploring language, writing, single motherhood, midlife and the small things that make my life my own.