Whoopee

Driving through rural Georgia, radio airwaves offered a honky-tonk country music station.  In one song, a smooth-singing, southern accented crooner related the glories of being a county man, something about tractors and strong arms and other virtues I cannot recall.  What I do remember is that when the song was over I wanted to  holler a “yeehaaw” or a “whoopee” to celebrate the juke-jamming, boot-tapping rhythm and mood of the music.  The look my kids gave me as the sound left my mouth revealed that perhaps they had not heard me whoop before.  I told them each to try it.  Their first attempts arose as the pathetic, self- conscious sounds of little city kids trying to satisfy their potentially crazy mom.  But after a few more tries and some encouragement to bring it to the sky we really had a good time hooting a call that filled our car with revelry.  Whoopee. 

Dictionary.com offered an entry for my unusual word today, whoopee.
1.  (interjection) used as a shout of exuberant joy.

Some music can move you:  different kinds of music, different kinds of inspiration.  I’m not certain if we have a local station that plays the hoe down style we found parading through the pines of pastoral Interstate 20, but for that moment it was perfect.  We were bored.  The road was still long ahead of us.  The music was fun and gave us a reason to make some noise in an otherwise muted space.

 

We simply do not encounter many socially appropriate opportunities to let the lungs loose and shout with exuberant joy.  Unless you count sports games, which might be close but much of that shouting is meant to make athletes motivated for improved performance - different from whoopee just because a song made you want to bellow.  Or the sky was so perfectly blue and spread out over the day’s start you wanted to celebrate.  You got the job you wanted.  The person who just ran a red light did not hit you.  A friend woke up from surgery. A neighbor helped jump start your dead car battery.  Or you have the needed number of bread slices for lunch sandwiches.  A place landed safely. 

 

Joy is jumping out of cracks and crevices in life and I propose bringing the energy of the place up with the sounds of our voices celebrating more often, especially if we are in the space of our car or house where no one can wonder what we’re doing.  If in public, perhaps the voice is one of the heart where we are free to shout “whoopee” anytime.

Holler

lips and lungs getting garrulous, hilarious

what if publicly expelled, downright yelled

by some crazy lucky lady who took a swig

of metaphorical caramel latte, high energy

tongue jig of joy lapping karma juke box

sure shooting true she hooted whoopee

hooray for me and a life swill that fills full

now, maybe moments sound celebrating