The whole nine yards

We’ve all heard the saying "The whole nine yards." Maybe you’ve even used it before. Where does the saying come from and what does it mean? Plenty of speculation and plenty of plausible theories exist.

One theory is the saying comes from World War II pilots yelling to the gunners in the back of the plane, “Give ‘em the whole nine yards!” Nine yards was the length of a full belt of ammunition. When they were up against a tough mission, they needed to give everything they had, or the whole nine yards.

Maybe the story is true and maybe it’s not. The real question is: how does the whole nine yards relate to our daily life in the year 2022? It’s quite simple, really. It might not be life or death like it was for a gunner in a World War II plane, but what are you giving 100% effort to?

Every day we see trash, plastic bottles and used face masks lying on the side of the highways and local roads. Do you think the people who dropped this trash instead of disposing of it properly were giving it the whole nine yards? Probably not.

Plenty of people walk with their heads down and are addicted to flipping through their cell phones all day instead of paying attention to what’s going on around them and spending quality time with the people around them. Are they giving it the whole nine yards? I doubt it.

It’s funny how a phrase created during a war can give us pause in our every day lives to question whether we are being the best we can be. Nine yards can give purpose, nine yards can inspire, nine yards can show others it’s their mission to give it everything they have.