19 November 2023

I heard someone use the word “Gucci” to mean something like okay or good. The first time I heard this word/phrase combo was in college some fellows invited me to a type of bar, I wanted to verify if I needed to be of a certain persuasion to go. They asked if I was 21, producing my ID made me Gucci. Hearing the word in continued use after such a long time requires a longer look. 10 years is a fairly long time for a word to be in circulation by my estimates and it’s probably not fair to call it a word, but closer to slang. There are people who have degrees claiming their expertise to define “word” and “slang”, to which I would say the world is mind. There’s been plenty of slang I can remember not lasting a year such as “Wassup?” and I hardly ever hear the Fonz’ signature “ayy” anymore. Gucci is a fun word to say, if you’re only ever reading this in your head or speed reading, that would be losing the trees to the forest. Language uses senses beyond the consensus, beyond the five often listed. What sense is the voice in your head that reads silently? Words are seen, heard, said, and even felt. Movies, music, and theater intend for people to feel something. Another aspect can even be the shared experience, there’s a difference between being in the crowd at a Queen concert and listening to their recording. People are willing to make pilgrimage expecting it to be a lifetime event. Before the moment it’s known that the future will be changed by this, the present is true to form and afterwards it’s a fond memory. The answer I’m circling is the word we have for what sense words touch is “soul”. When one becomes Gucci their soul is changed.