Are you a breast man—or woman? Either way, you should be.

I want to talk about my breasts. And I want to talk about all the breasts in your life, too.

Given that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m hoping you’ll permit me a little license to expand how we’re talking about the subject. Considering that sometimes when you mention this part of the anatomy, it inspires giggling or—pardon the pun—tittering at the expense of health, it’s twice as important to draw your attention chestward.

With a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old at home, we’re full of laughs, snickers and gut-busting guffaws over everything that has to do with body parts and humor. My kiddos get the biggest kick out of trying to get a rise out of me by tossing the language around. “I see your boobies!” someone will sing out, and they’ll both break into hysterical laughter.

So I couldn’t be happier to see the phrase “I *heart* boobies!” popping up all around town these days, including on bracelets sported on high school wrists and on bumper stickers on cars in local parking lots and roads.

I’m glad to see some of the juvenile language is now being co-opted back by serious-minded, health-oriented campaigns. Maybe now it will help demystify parts of the anatomy too ‘sexy’ to talk about openly and will help make a health focus exactly that—a focus on health.

Given that breast cancer will strike more than 230,000 women in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society—and likely 40,000 will die this year alone—we need to be focusing more on the health of our boobies, and making it a topic of everyday conversation for everyone.

It’s a trend that started first with women most affected by the disease. How empowering for teams walking in the hundreds of national events that raise money for breast cancer research and awareness, when they use a little humor to propel them forward. I have a friend who started such a team, that she called “Tailgating for Ta-Ta’s.”

I’m encouraged to see the trend spreading beyond just the breast cancer community. I was awestruck when I turned on the television last Sunday afternoon and evening and saw the hottest shade of pink I’ve seen outside of a Taylor Swift concert splashed everywhere on the field. It was on the goalposts, on the footballs, on sneakers and gloves—even in a pink ribbon shaved into one of the player’s haircuts.

Suddenly, neon pink is the “it” color for brawny bruisers on the gridiron, in an effort to remind women about the benefits of early breast cancer detection efforts. The NFL has a month-long campaign and is making a big push in their part for Breast Cancer Awareness.

I’d like to think that daddies and their boys watching the game had conversations about breasts that mattered on Sunday, and lots of people learned something a little more substantial about taking the topic seriously.

The message? Boobies matter, not just in cheerleading uniforms.

They matter enough that places like Stop & Shop are taking one step further than just selling yogurt cups with pink foil tops. On our recent family shopping expedition, we were handed a breast self exam card, something I previously would have only gotten at a trip to the GYN’s office. The card explained the steps to perform a self-check of breast tissue, complete with illustrations.

Sure enough, it prompted a conversation with my 9-year-old son. “That’s sort of disturbing, mom,” he said, when I showed him what the cashier had given us.

I can understand the embarrassment factor, especially for a pre-teen boy. But boy oh boy, it led to an interesting chat about what we were really talking about—checkups, health and something that affects us all. And talking about it more—whether that’s thanks to the card we got after paying for our produce, or due to the gridiron guys going ga-ga for pink on an October Sunday—is really what’s going to helpfully save some lives by getting as many people aware as possible.

At the end of the day, you’ll learn that’s what really important to me anyway. Over the course of getting to know me in this new weekly “Patch In” column, you’ll see that I often talk about the words we use and the power that comes along with how we use them. It’s conversations like the one I described above with my son, or conversations I have with people at a PTA meeting, or conversations we all have on a broader playing field—like in the comments section here on Patch—that can change the way we look at the issues that face us.

So whether they’re boobies, ta-tas or breasts, I’m hoping for at least one month to make them the talk of the town.

About this column: Trying to find meaning and connections in issues and events for the people of lower Fairfield County.