Out

The word for today is OUT, as in spin OUT, wipe OUT or chill OUT. Or the runner is rounding second, heading to third, going for home, and he's OUT! Sometimes when I call someone I get their voicemail and the message says the person you are calling is OUT. Sometimes I go to the store to pick up an item advertised on sale, but the item is sold OUT. Sometimes, if there is an intruder in a nightmare, I'll scream get OUT!


Is there anything good about the word OUT? I consider the many conversations I've had with my wunderdog Rosie. When the conversation doesn't center on food, there is only one other topic, when are we going OUT, or more accurately she tells me, I want to go OUT. For Rosie going OUT means she has opportunities, to visit the neighbors, to find fast food in the street or peanuts or breadcrumbs along the curb, to smell where other dogs have peed, to roll in the mud or the grass. OUT means relief from her blase life on the couch. Oh, I almost forgot, OUT means physical relief for her too. She knows only to relieve herself when she is OUT.

Tonight I wanted to go OUT. I wanted relief from the blase life in my head. My thoughts were OUT of control. I needed to get those thoughts OUT of my mind, get the feelings out of my body. For years, whenever I was troubled my friend Bertelle would say, up and OUT Amy, just get it up and OUT.

A friend had a change of schedule. I thought I was going to be OUT in the far suburbs he said, but I'm in Evanston if you want to get together and play Scrabble. I love to play Scrabble; it always puts me OUT of my misery. The point of the game is to make a word OUT of the letters you pick and to place that word in the highest scoring position on the board. The person who is leading towards the end of the game tries to go OUT, to use all his letters to end the game. If you go OUT and you have the highest score then you win.

Sometimes people say, I just need to get OUT of the house. Sometimes people say, I have to get OUT of my relationship. Sometimes people say, what did I get OUT of that experience? Don't worry, I hear myself saying, it will all work OUT.

In my days working in non-profit management I learned a principle of data management-- garbage in, garbage OUT. The same is true about life, what I get OUT of it depends upon what I put in. The ingredients determine how the meal turns OUT. I'm not going to turn myself inside OUT over this entry. I'm OUT of ideas for this post. It's over and OUT.