I have a friend named “Hucklebuck.” That is not his real name, but every now and then, much like the show Law and Order, I change the identities of the people I write about in order to protect them.
One semester in college, Hucklebuck took some sort of theology class. I am not certain what he learned, but I do know he was able to pick up a mastery of the word “hermeneutics.” I know this because if we discuss anything that is remotely related to God and the Bible, he always uses it. Here’s how a conversation with Hucklebuck typically goes:
Me:
“I think I’m going to save writing about the Left Behind Series on my blog for a rainy day.”
Hucklebuck:
“That should be a fairly interesting exercise in hermeneutics.”
Me:
“What?”
Hucklebuck:
“I just mean you have to address it from the view point of hermeneutics. To do otherwise wouldn’t be very relevant of you.”
Me:
“I hate you Hucklebuck.”
It’s an annoying thing and I think I found a way to fix it. It’s kind of a “if you can’t beat em, join em” approach. If you have a friend that does this, just make up your own religious sounding words when you talk to them. I made up a few you can use if you’d like:
1. Beardronneous
This is taken from the word beard and erroneous. Beards because Jesus probably had one and erroneous because whatever you’re saying is wrong. Example: “I found that sermon on tithing to be a bit beardronneous.”
2. Parablacity
This is something you can say when you find something that feels like a parable in your own life. Example: “I think the credit debt I faced was like the prodigal son story, it had a high degree of parablacity.”
3.Lorumgesis
This is from the latin word “Lorum” and gesis is from exegesis, although I probably did not spell that correctly. Which was beardronneous of me. This word means to be very Jesus like. Example: “His grasp of doing something lorumgesis in that moment was very impressive.”
It’s a fun little game that just might make the Hucklebucks in our lives think twice about using silly words they don’t really know the meaning of.
Try it today.
p.s. this is one of the posts that inspired a reader to use the nickname Hucklebuck in his comments and is not a post about him. The Hucklebuck we all know and love would never do this.