English Idiom: Part of the furniture
One of the great things about working at the same company for a long time is stability. At the same time, though, one drawback is that you become part of the furniture.
What I mean is that once you’ve been somewhere so long, it seems permanent, and you become invisible. Nobody notices you anymore, and your presence is taken for granted.
A while ago, I was talking with a student about the homeless man who lived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, when I was a teenager.
If you’ve taken my advice and are paying attention to article usage when reading, you’ve noticed that I said ‘the’ homeless man.
I said ‘the’ for a very good reason.
There was only one.
His name was Hobo Bill. No, he’s not the guy in the picture. Hobo Bill was part of the furniture in St. John’s. Or should I say street furniture?
Whenever I went downtown on my mountain bike, he would be sitting in front of the waterfall feature on George Street.
Sometimes he was sleeping, other times, he was talking with someone or just sitting there watching the world go by.
Although he was not originally from Newfoundland, everyone knew who he was.
He was interviewed on radio and TV.
Old ladies would knit socks and gloves for him.
Then one day, he was no longer there.
He died, and life went on, except his bench was empty.
Some people noticed, but most didn’t.
Life is like that.
We tend to take so much for granted.
Why did I tell you this story today? Well, I wanted to introduce you to a new phrase and remind you to put some spice in your life; don’t become part of the furniture.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.
