I don’t know anymore when I first encountered the word ‘merry-go-lucky’. It’s not the typical word you learn in an English class. So, it might be that I read it first in a book – Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series could be a possible source. I am pretty sure these books introduced me to the word gleeman. Or it was in a movie.
Anyway, fact is that it is one of the words I love. It starts with the pronunciation that makes you smile, stop in surprise, then smile again. Yes, just try it: merry – go – lucky. Did it lift the corners of your mouth? Told yeah!
And then the sound. It starts with the smell of fir trees and the taste of sugar cranes and ends with Leprechaun gold and ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’. Does this fit every Irish man on Christmas with a merry-go-lucky nature that lasts until St. Patrick’s Day?
Last but not least ‘merry-go-lucky’ expresses a strategy. Translated into German (Leichtlebigkeit) it is the term for the art of easy living. Be merry and you’ll draw the luck in your direction because the ones who are merry go to be lucky.
A beautiful word.
It’s not that easy to be merry. Yet, just writing this made me smile. Merry? Maybe. Let’s wait for the day I’ll go to be lucky.
