Fabulous…say it again…

American Sign Language. I am still learning. I like signs that somewhat reflect the word. The sign for milk for instance, mimics milking a cow. Easy to remember, right?

However, many ASL signs are similar, and some signs might be the same but have different meanings based on context.  For instance, the sign for ‘handsome’ and the sign for ‘Hawaii’ are the same.  Clearly the name of our fiftieth state is not handsome, so signed in the context of states, vacations, or islands, the sign would translate as Hawaii.  The same sign if signed in context with this author…

Recently, one of my friends suggested in a sermon that each of us might try an experiment.  When someone asks us how we are doing, the answer for the coming week would be “Fabulous”.  Without repeating the entire sermon, the long version of the same answer was:

“I am fabulous, because of the love of God poured into my heart.”  

Upon seeing the sermon, I searched the internet for a video of someone signing ‘fabulous’ and sent him a couple of options.  Of the two variations, the way he preferred ‘fabulous’ is by showing both palms to the reader with your hands six inches or so apart at chest level and then repeating the gesture slightly lower.  He responded and promised to add the ASL sign to his ‘fabulous’ responses that week. 

A few days after delivering that sermon, my friend and I were having lunch.  I asked how he was doing.  ‘’Fabulous’’ he replied and demonstrated his newly acquired ASL sign.  Then he smiled and said, ‘’When I answered in this manner to your daughter Katie yesterday, she told me that this is also the sign for Sunday. ‘’

I laughed and offered the context explanation for the duplication and then added that I wasn’t sure what the signs would be if you were having a fabulous Sunday.  I’ll have to look into that…

Today, I ran into Dan who I had met earlier in the week. When he asked how I was doing, I completely forgot the sermon response and fell into my typical response of ‘’Handsome, thank you for asking.’’ (That one always gets a laugh.) I was signing as I said the words aloud.

Dan was intrigued and asked about the signs. I showed him the sign for handsome again and mentioned that it was also the sign for Hawaii. We talked for a few minutes about ASL and somewhere in the conversation he asked about the sign for ‘dead’. I showed him the sign and then I told him a story that I had heard about some doctors that had created their own sign for ‘dead’ after watching the horse scene in the movie Animal House. (I’m thinking that there was likely some
non-rubbing type alcohol involved in that discussion.)

He laughed at my story and told me that when he was a young man he had once temporarily gotten involved with a gang.  The gang he told me had their own hand sign for dead.   ‘’That,’’ I said, ‘’ is a great excuse to get out of a gang.  But just the same, please show me the sign.’’

Dan raised both palms, chest high, about six inches apart…

Fabulous, I thought and then asked, ‘’Why did that indicate dead?’’ He smiled, wiggled his fingers and said ‘’ten toes up.’’

Now that is easy to remember!

To all those who have chosen to share this time with me today please know that I wish you a fabulous week ahead because of the love that God has poured into your heart.

Thanks for listening!

Your friend,

KBM

Kevin Medlin
kevin@mysilentpew.com