OK, so maybe Monday isn’t the best day of the week to post blog entries. I thought I would be able to get into a routine if I forced the issue, but it turns out Mondays are just a little bit more hectic than other days of the week. Not to mention I am more tired and less motivated so soon after the weekend. I am thinking Wednesdays or Thursdays may be better blog update days. I’m trying Wednesday this week, and we’ll see how well it goes.
Today I want to bring attention to another grammar bugaboo of mine: a particular misuse of the words over and under. It happens all the time — advertisements hype “over 200 exercises” that can be done on that flexible weight machine in your basement (if only you could make yourself go down there and clean the dust off it), and brochures tell you it takes “under five minutes” to get to their cider mill from the highway. What they really mean is more than and less than.
In fact, over means above, and under means below. If you don’t believe me, look the words over and under up in Webster’s. Not one of the many variations on each definition contains anything even close to more than or less than.
Now, most untrained minds will not even notice the mistake. But, aside from my snobbish intolerance of misused words, other, more practical issues of clarity could arise from this error, doubling its annoying factor. If I say, “I am under a hundred pounds,” do you assume: (a) that I am underweight, or (b) that I am in danger of being squashed by tenuously hanging dumbbells?
Sorry I flaked out on my blogging duties last week. Things have been a bit hectic lately and it is difficult to find the mental space to compose anything coherent. One of the things I would like to dedicate more time to (though it would require sacrificing much-needed sleep) is freewriting.
A bunch of years ago I read (and followed) The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Any blocked writers out there may want to check it out. I remember it was half new age hokey, but it was also half (ok, 75 percent) incredibly helpful in helping me unblock my creative energy. The critical part of the methodology is writing every single day, as soon as you get out of bed, for twenty or so minutes. Just writing anything at all — whatever comes out, whether it is a reflection on yesterday’s events, a report on the dream you just awoke from, a summary of a problem, or just a rant about how much you hate waking up a half hour early to write a bunch of crap no one will ever read.
The theory goes (if I am remembering correctly) that your mind is not fully alert enough to act as very much of a censor, and, over time, you will learn to put pen to paper without fear. It is basically a retraining of the mind-hand connection — a “just do it” for writers.
The point is, sometimes we need to be reminded of the root of our passion. Sometimes the hectic day-to-day craziness masks (or piles up on) our true purpose, but mandatory daily life doesn’t have to stop us from pursuing our personal creative goals. The more free we feel in writing, I believe, the more nimbly we are able to enter our own mental space.
Filed under: Ramblings
I know it’s Monday and I’m supposed to post a blog entry. But I’m tired. Really, really tired. I’ve had to do a lot of math tonight which has not helped my brain. Numbers make me irritable. I hope you will all forgive me as I work my way through some overdue household chores on the way upstairs to bed. I’m sure something brilliant will come to my well-rested mind tomorrow.
