good morning, world. Sorry to have been gone a while - school holidays, glorious summertime, busy kids and busy mama. Fun, though!
Tonight, for your delectation and enjoyment, we will be serving a hash of the English language......actually, we will be correcting that hash, minus the tomato sauce and with just a little ranting thrown in.
Firstly, the word PROUD.
Great word, and justifiable when one has actually accomplished something worthwhile.
When one has not - as when someone ELSE has accomplished the worthwhile something - one is not proud. Truly, what is there to be proud of when talking about the Olympic winners, a local woman making good, or a friend doing something marvelous? Yes, I understand national pride (as misplaced as it is), but it's not as though you were the one crossing the finish line before everyone else, is it? The only people with the right to be proud of an Olympian are the competitor themselves, their coaches, and possibly their teammates if it's a team event. Otherwise one is abrogating a sense of self worth to which one is not entitled. Even when parents are proud of their children, it needs to be because of the child's actual accomplishments, not how those accomplishments reflect on the parents. (Yes, parents can be proud - and those of us who are also grandparents do claim a little of the glory, just because we can ;).)
I am heartily sick of reading people's posts stating how 'proud' they are of total strangers. Someone makes a wonderful video raising awareness of autism, perhaps, and I see post after post stating how 'proud' various individuals are. Why? They did nothing. They are reading about it, not DOING it. Local community members are 'proud' of our high school graduating class. People are 'proud' of firefighters, or their favourite sports team.
Pride must be earned - not by affiliation, but by action.
And now on to another phrase that's been bugging the hell out of me since it first started being misused: Line in the sand.
The phrase was used when I was growing up, but it meant to make a stand that one would not be able to enforce - which makes perfect sense. Sand is hardly concrete, or marble - it moves, it shifts, it's blown by winds or washed by the sea. If you draw a line in the sand at the beach (which is primarily where you'll find sand) it will last until the tide comes in.
For some reason I'm now hearing used to mean an immutable, definitive mark, one which establishes a position permanently. Now, when I hear a politician state that he is 'drawing a line in the sand' on a particular platform, I snarkle to myself because my thought is that is exactly what he is doing....however, I know he is intending to imply that he is holding a definite position. I don't know who began the misuse, but surely people have enough common sense...oh, wait. Yeah. Ok, well surely SOMEONE realizes that it's a stupid mistake? Please, if you have found yourself using the term, do take the time to think about it for a minute.
And another thing. Fun. Fun is NOT an adjective. I don't care if assorted ill-advised dictionaries have accepted it, it is not correct to say "We had a fun time at the beach, drawing lines in the sand". You may have had fun, something might be fun to do, or you may even be fortunate enough that you'll find something even more fun - not funner.
Ow. It hurts. Stop it.
And then there's the letter Y. There are five vowels, not six. Stop teaching my children that the letter Y is one of the vowels because I will correct them when they are doing their homework. And I WILL come and chat with you if you mark them down because of what I teach them. And you won't think we are having a fun time, because I am not drawing a line in the sand.
So, as Snoopy says to Woodstock when he is bemoaning grammatical abuse, "There, their, they're".....
.................................................words can dance on the page if you just allow it..
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