Day 28: Grammar

A confession: I proofread my text messages.

Another: I will judge yours if you don’t.

I’m pretty sure this is a character fault. Many people write well and take pride in their own clarity of communication without needing to judge a friend who has just been so kind as to “invite u out fr beers 2nite!” Yet here I sit, quietly offended that this individual, who was kind enough to invite me out for good company and might even offer to buy the first round, did not think enough of me to take the time to check her spelling. Is there a less gracious response? Well, yes, but not by much.

I am a Dutch Midwesterner. I was raised among people who do things in good order and mind their P’s and Q’s. When someone fails to live up to the expectations I set for myself I invariably take note and attribute a cause. Maybe they weren’t raised to know better. Maybe they’re lazy. Maybe the just don’t care about me. This is narcissism writ small.

I will try to show you grace, world, since you seem to be moving away from formal rules and careful prose. I will miss the old ways and attempt to keep them alive in my own work and perhaps in the ways I teach my children. I ask in return for your greater grace, that you might forgive this madness inside of me.