Friday, March 4, 2011

How Do I Love Thee?

How is it that I, an English teacher and writer, fell in love with a man who calls an apostrophe "that floating comma"?

I gotta admit, I'm fascinated with the idea of falling in love. Like it's an accident. Uncontrollable. "Falling." Painful, unplanned... remembering a fall down someone's steps a couple month's ago--quick!

I suppose that in many ways, the attraction I have for the one I love has been like those emotions associated with "falling." But attraction in itself is such an odd process! Why we click with certain people and not others? How the most unlikely person in the room might be the one you fit with just right?

Interesting stuff, is all I'm saying. And no, I'm not a stuck-up language snob, or even a member of the grammar police (for the most part)... but when I read that text the other day, I laughed so hard I almost cried.

The context was we were arguing over the function on your phone that keys words out for you. Because his phone spells out "ain't" for him, my dear one maintains that "ain't" is a word. When I suggested his phone typed it in there for him because he once texted it and his phone memorized it, his reply was: "No. It types that floating comma in there too."

And if that wasn't bad enough, added, "with all it's supper powers."

One of my students? I would have thrown up my hands. Or maybe sent a few erasers flying across the room.

But in this situation, all I can do is smile. And appreciate how the people we care most about in our lives can fit so unexpectedly into those funny moments that give us an opportunity to see how truly different we are.

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