Ok, that’s not the traditional way that most people say that phrase, but words count and the thought of skinning a cat makes me squeamish. I changed to something a little more palatable.
And when something happened that caused me to say it, it got me to thinking. Where do these phrases even come from, these rather graphically descriptive, colorfully vicious, idioms? So just for fun, let me share what I found, along with my version of the same thing:
There’s more than one way to skin a cat: This of course means that there’s more than one way to do something, so if you’re not getting the results you want, try something else. The phrase appears to have originated in the 17th century. Rather than the obvious, it may also have referred to catfish and the act of skinning it before eating. Either way, it’s not pretty. My rewording: There’s more than one way to skin a knee. It comes up a lot for me.
Killing two birds with one stone: This is another way of saying accomplishing two things simultaneously, in other words watching your favorite tv show while on the treadmill. This is again from the 17th century when hunters hoped to kill two or more birds with one throw of a stone. My rewording: Feeding two birds with one seed.
Packed in like sardines: Obviously when you squeezed tightly together, like at a concert say, you’re packed in like sardines. This one is from the 1800s and comes from the method of preserving sardines by tightly packing them in cans. My rewording: Packed in like pickles
Let the cat out of the bag: What’s with the cat idioms? This one means to reveal a secret, maybe by mistake. This is an interesting one. It originated in medieval England where farmers would sell piglets at market. The piglets were put in a bag, but some dishonest vendors would swap them with a less valuable (their opinion) cat. Those savvy buyers who checked would “let the cat out of the bag.” My version: I prefer the more kind “spill the beans” which was part of a voting process in ancient Greece.
It’s a dog eat dog world: It’s a tough world out there. This idiom from the 16th century is actually a contradiction of an old Latin saying that means “a dog does not eat the flesh of a dog.” YIKES! How it got to the current version is a mystery. My version: It’s the whole enchilada. Let me explain. Sure it’s tough out there, and it’s beautiful, and we can choose what we focus on. So I choose this idiom from one of my mentors. And when I do hear someone use the “dog eat dog” idiom, in my mind I hear “doggy dog.” It’s silly, it makes no sense and it makes me smile!
Like shooting fish in a barrel: This is what you say when something is particularly and perhaps unfairly easy to do. The theory of the origin is fairly recent when fishermen stored their catch in a barrel filled with ice. Easy to shoot one in such limited space. My version: Like feeding fish in a barrel.
That’s it, that’s all I got. What’s this all got to do with mindfulness? It’s all about awareness, including in the words and phrases you choose. That and mostly iWhich idioms have I missed? What are your some of your favorites? Which ones have you changed to align with your beliefs?
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