My mother is a retired ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Scrabble, crossword puzzles, and word puzzles were strewn across my childhood. My family enjoyed puns, metaphor, innuendo, double entendre, play-on-words, and jokes. I’m the product of the SRA reading system and still remember the urge to grab my hands on the next piece to read in order to move ahead. In third grade, my teacher quizzed me on difficult spelling words. What a hoot! I nailed mystique and she almost fell over! The local library had a Summer Reading Program. At the end of devouring a season of books, I received a certificate and button as acknowledgements of my hard work. (I still have these beloved buttons as mementos of a good time.) I loved junior high SAT prep in English class; the vocabulary words that were drilled into me still come out of my mouth today. In high school, I tied for first place in a spelling bee in Honors English. The prize was being invited to dinner at my English teacher’s home. He was excellent at teaching and reinforcing grammar. I have not forgotten: Be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been, have, has, had, would, could, should, may, might, must. In college, I was a linguistics major for a short time. I thoroughly enjoyed syntax, phonetics, and sociolinguistics. We learned about proscribing or prescribing language. I tended to fall into the category of prescriptive: “It doesn’t matter whether you say to-may-to or to-mah-to.” As the years have unfolded and I have seen others forget grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules, I shifted to that of prescriptive: “These are the basic rules to follow in order to communicate clearly with others.” There are no rights and wrongs in Earth School as it is a free will fun house of learning in all areas, including communication. Joanie, the leaning-to-prescriptive, however, is moved to pen this Blog.
With what appears to be the lost art of writing in cursive, spelling and using punctuation correctly, and applying grammar rules well, it might be time to say something from the heart: Look what is occurring within this construct of communication. When the art of communication appears to unwind and become anything goes, one might wonder why this is happening. An Urban Dictionary validates and supports variations on meaning and moves one from the heart of a word or phrase, Again, why might there be the shifting and dissolution of what appeared to be an extant and tight paradigm?
I believe we might be being played. For eyes that see, we are also being shown who might be doing the dirty deed. It is for each soul to crack the code. It hit me one morning why this bothered me so much to hear others ungrammatically speaking the following:
“Me and (so and so)….” or “(Blah blah blah) to me and (so and so).”
One would need to research the grammar rules that have existed in order to remember that me and is incorrect.
“(So and so) and I…” or “(Blah blah blah) to (so and so) and me.” This is correct grammar.
Subjects and objects…
Looking under the grammar rock, we might find me and as a shift to Service to Self over Other. We might uncover insecurity where the me is tended to first and foremost because it needs more attention than other. Even still, one might find a natural swaying to me and because everyone else is doing it so why not I?
Be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been.
Me and my shadow… My shadow and I…
It would be fascinating if each soul shifted their words and put themselves last instead of first. Might the collective gain more compassion? Humility? Softening? Fewer power struggles? Might folks find themselves Serving Other a bit more than Self? I believe it could be monumental if those who put me first took the focus off self and put themselves last. Putting me or I last might afford folks the opportunity to see what pain lies hidden beneath me and. Tending to healing self would be paramount if fear were exposed as a result of a mere word placement flip.
Each human has free will to speak how they wish. I am old school, as I have been told by my younger friends. The art of communication does not have to one day be found as a relic in a museum. I surely do not want to resurrect it and wax poetic for future grandchildren about the days when we knew grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Together, we can return to more humility and compassion by considering word placement as it applies to self in relation to other.
You do you and I do me. No judgement. Just sayin’.
My Guides and I support you.
With Love,
~Joanie
