The last two posts were a bit long and heavy. So tonight I’m going light.
When was the first time you ever heard this expression? Mine was during this video–long live Jimmy Fallon! Watching again tonight, these 8:35 minutes made me laugh just as hard as the first time, to the point of tears. If you have time, check it out–if it doesn’t brighten your mood by an order of magnitude, you may be dead. Fallon and Kerry Washington complete a Mad Lib at the desk. Staff create cue cards based on the answers, then the duo acts out the scene in costume and on set. If you don’t have time to watch the whole video (but really, invest 8 minutes in your day’s joy, eh?), catch ten seconds, 1:20-1:30. Just their expressions in this moment could lift you! Then share it–spread the joy!
According to English-Grammar-Lessons.com, “Not today, Satan!” is “something people say when they overcome something particularly challenging. If someone is faced with something that they should not be able to do, but they do it anyway, they may comment, ‘not today, Satan’, meaning that even such powerful forces as Satan himself [were] not going to stop that person from achieving that thing. It is also commonly used to express resistance to an action, thought or idea.”
Can you guess its origin?
Apparently it was first uttered by Bianca Del Rio, in the final episode of the sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2014, which she won. Urban Dictionary entered a definition for the phrase in 2015. I have only superficial exposure to the world of drag on TV, and I love it! I think it’s bold and fun, and the irreverent and vibrant challenge to traditional social norms makes me laugh and want to raise my hand, point, lower my chin a little sideways in respect and shout, “You GO, girl!” I think we’ve come a long way since Victor/Victoria.
Here’s a fun challenge: Let’s all look for and take opportunities this week to exclaim, “Not today, Satan!” Tell the story in a comment below!
Is there another expression that you love, that we can also try on/out? Let us know, and let’s have some fun, shall we?
Healing Through Connection 
My wife was a grammar school special education teacher for 33 years. Just a few years before retiring, while teaching a 5th grade class in an urban school, she admonished one of the students for his behavior telling him: “You just weren’t thinking Otis.” without missing a beat Otis replied “Oh I was thinking Mrs Ventura. But I was thinking the wrong stuff.”
This has become my go to phrase when I do or say something that I would have been better off not saying or not doing – “I was thinking. I was just thinking the wrong stuff.”
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Such a self-compassionate practice of self-awareness! 😀
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