Let’s talk about these three words~ Flakey, Flighty and Spacy. They sound like some unpredictable dwarves, don’t they. I have heard them misused a bit lately and have had to defend myself even about these silly words, so I decided to look them up and see EXACTLY what they mean.

Flakey: To be unreliable, and/or absent-minded, flighty, fickle. Generally irresponsible.

Flighty: Fickle and irresponsible

Spacy: Eccentric; offbeat.

I thought Flighty had a gentler meaning than Flakey, but turns out it’s pretty much on par with Flakey. However, I have always been a defender of Spacy…because I am One. And while there are parts of Flakey I can relate to (Hello, Absent-Minded!), there are other meanings in there that I can’t particularly defend.

We were at lunch with friends a few months ago and one of them said, in a positive and bold voice, “All musicians are flakey.”

(Insert brakes screeching to a halt right HERE.)

Um, what?

Now, I might sound like I can be outspoken since I write on Ye Olde Blogge, but in real life, I keep pretty quiet most of the time. However…since my husband and I are both musicians and so are some of our dear friends, I couldn’t let this one slide. Also…there is nothing that can make my little responsible brain hurt any more than hearing we are unreliable and irresponsible.

I took a deep breath and said, “Not ALL musicians are flakey.” And eventually, “I think you’re misusing the word flakey and might mean spacy.”

This lead to a fun conversation. Truly. Yes, she really was misusing the word a bit, but she also meant exactly what she was saying. She didn’t necessarily mean that WE were irresponsible, but I think the general impression of musicians is still FLAKE in large, raging letters. (We’re fine, still good friends, no harm done.) Let me insert here that this post wasn’t really intended to be about musicians at all, just the words…but while we’re on the subject, yes, I know a lot of flakey musicians too. There are also flakey~ Insert Profession Here…

If we do keep musicians in the example, though, I know some of the hardest working musicians and to get where they’ve gotten in life, it hasn’t been through Flakiness or Flightiness.

Spacy, on the other hand…that’s another story.

Since that lunch, I keep hearing these words being misused and I think it is giving Spacy a bad name.

I’ve been told I was weird since junior high and that label has followed me around to this day. My daughter says people at school tell her she’s weird all the time too. The difference is, when I was a kid, I didn’t know what they meant and it hurt my feelings. With my daughter, she knows she’s different and she likes being that way. She loves her weird parents too and loves that we’re an unusual lot.

I do wish I wasn’t so spacy because I could get a lot more done…but here’s the good side of it:

I can imagine whole worlds inside my head. (Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but that’s where stories are made.)

I can visualize what I want things to look like~ pictures, the house, jewelry, etc.

I can cope when things are hard, by not letting it get in too deep…or by going to my imaginative place.

I can tune you out if I don’t like what you’re saying. Ha! Just kidding. Kind of. Call me a FLAKE and I’ll snap out of my SPACE.

I could go on and on about this subject, I think. The truth of the matter is that I probably have ADD or something and shouldn’t be such a Spokesperson for the Spacy, but it’s a label I don’t mind carrying. Let’s save Flakey and Flighty for people we don’t like.

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