So “for sure” is used to convey no doubt about something. I did find a much more colorful British version of conveying no doubt about something and that is “as sure as eggs is eggs”. I probably should have confirmed with Gillian that this actually is a phrase to be found in British parlance, but I have gone ahead without that validation but would certainly be open to standing corrected. I found this phrase on the Internet and you for sure can’t believe everything you read online.
I very recently was reminded of this topic when hearing Dead and Company perform an old Bob Weir song called Saint of Circumstance. Let me provide a little background here though I am sure many would say this is not necessary to do so at all. For those of you new to the group in the past couple years, I am a Deadhead in good standing dating back to the early 1970’s and that references to the band have frequently appeared in my writings for Story Telling. For a gay man of my lineage, it may seem incongruous to be paired with the Grateful Dead but let me assure you there have always been a significant number of queers as fans of the band. It was not uncommon in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s to see young men in flowing, colorful ankle-length skirts twirling to the music at many shows. By no means near a majority but often a very prominent and noticeable few dozen Radical Faire types twirling like dervishes. A Dead show providing, for the most part, a much safer environment for such dancing than say a Metallica concert. To this day even at Dead and Company shows, which I only stream live on my desktop, there are areas for free-form dancing to occur and though I rarely catch a glimpse of free-flowing non-hetero garb there is still plenty of expressive twirling involved unlikely to be seen at your local Country Western bar.
Back to my recent hearing of Saint of Circumstance and today’s topic. One of the last verses of the song stuck in my head and reminded me I needed to write something for today’s group:
Well, I sure don’t know
What I’m goin’ for
But I’m gonna go for it,
That’s for sure.
As I get older there are fewer and fewer things I think are for sure. As we age many of our “for sures” turn out to not be so sure. The old phrase goes “nothing is for certain but death and taxes” and I think the taxes are even at times not always the case, but the death part certainly is. Also, I was raised to think heaven and hell are for sure and that I would always have a friend in Jesus. Well, that has certainly for me turned out to be a crock of shit for sure. These days I am hard-pressed to identify anything that is for sure, except the death business. And on that cheery note, I’ll stop for today.