What I Mean by ‘Vaya Con Dios’

Brains are weird. I am fascinated by how they work in general.

Take, for example, the Spanish phrase, ‘vaya con Dios’.

What made my brain choose, of all things, a phrase in a language I don’t speak, about something in which I do not believe, as something to inject into my online identity?

I am a proud atheist. I didn’t start out that way, but I got there pretty young. While I was still in catholic school, in fact. It turns out that asking questions that make people uncomfortable is a talent I started working on at a young age. In this instance, asking very pointed questions of the nuns charged with my education, and not getting real answers, drove me to seek my own.

But if this isn't the first thing of mine you're reading (I mean, there’s a whole three other posts before this, what the hell are you waiting for? :D ), you may have noticed how I end my posts with ‘vaya con dios’.

"So, you're not an atheist?" You might ask.

I am. Promise.

And while I don't feel a need to explain this, I want to.

I can’t claim to have always been drawn to the phrase ‘vaya con Dios’. This common Spanish saying meaning ‘go with God’, is at least common enough to hear in America, that I can't remember the first time I'd heard it. It never resonated in any particular way for me, at all though, until recently.

I’m not Hispanic, and I don’t speak Spanish (I took another language in school). Hell, I have serious difficulties picking up languages in general - I’ve never been successful at learning to speak another language; despite trying.

So why adopt this phrase now, if it never resonated with or held any meaning for me before?

It's all about the vibe for me, not the literal translation.

It turns out, like many things in my life, there is an author and a book to thank. In this case, the credit goes to the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson.

I devoured those books. (I try not to hero worship, but as much as I love the story - RC Bray’s narration of the audiobooks absolutely makes this series 1000x better).

This phrase, which appears maybe a handful of times throughout the 16 (so far) books of this series, stuck with me for some reason. Not because of its religious undertones, but for the spirit of well-wishing it embodies.

When I drop a ‘vaya con dios’, it's my way of saying ‘take care’ or ‘best wishes’. It’s a way of sending out positive vibes that I feel more connected to, for some reason, than either of those phrases.

The lowercase ‘d’ in ‘dios’? That’s simply my way of keeping true to my beliefs while embracing the sentiment of the phrase.

So, that's the story.

Vaya con dios