APPRECIATION #86: ASS, BADASS, BADASSERY

I like ass. The word.

It’s like you’re going to ask something, but stop short.

It’s like you’re going to make a comparison, but then change the sound after the first letter.

And the things in front of ass are so interesting and varied.

And I love that the first sentence here seems risque because it sounds like I’m talking about butts or bums or buns.

It’s the thing in front of our various asses that are so interesting. We are all asses. But what kind?

A. Smart

B. Dumb

C. Jack

D. Bad

E. Other

I like badass. The word. Some of it is nostalgia for Saipan where things were liberally described as badass. The usage was so common that it was probably used in church. To me, saying badass is similar  to saying or hearing curse words from Britain. You know they are interpreted as offensive, but you don’t feel them to be that way because you didn’t grow up thinking that Randy, or bloody, or bollocks, or tosser, or etc. had too much of an offensive bite.

Speaking of badass, I love this:

Don’t call me lucky. Call me a badass.  Shonda Rhimes in The Year of Yes

I like ass, badass, and I like badassery. Shonda Rhimes has some to say about badassery in her book The Year of Yes.

Badassery:

(noun) the practice of knowing one’s own accomplishments and gifts, accepting one’s own accomplishments and gifts and celebrating one’s own accomplishments and gifts; 2. (noun) the practice of living life with swagger : SWAGGER (noun or verb) a state of being that involves loving oneself, waking up “like this” and not giving a crap what anyone else thinks about you. Term first coined by William Shakespeare.  

And I like this, also from Shonda:

People like being around whole, healthy, happy people.

I think whole, healthy, and happy people are badasses.