The meaning of timshel. . .

"Ah!" said Lee. "I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has influenced the thinking and the lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, 'Do thou,' and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in 'Thou shalt.' Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But 'Thou mayest'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win." Lee's voice was a chant of triumph.
-John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Monday, August 2, 2010

Semi

We left Salt Lake at about 8 am and landed in Chicago at 11ish. Our flight from Chicago left at 6 pm Central time and arrived in Brussels about 11 am whatever-European time. From Brussels we had another several hours till Kigali and then, finally, Entebbe at about 10 pm. The good news for us is, we love to talk and can entertain ourselves for hours with convo and giggles. The bad news for everyone else on the plane is, we love to talk and can entertain ourselves for hours with convo and giggles. Well, too bad for them.
All of my closest friends make me laugh. And they seem to think I'm funny, too. I love that they think that, largely because I love being the center of attention. With Katie it goes a step further. She loves to be the center of attention as well and so our time together is often spent in humorous one-up-manship. One of us will make a random, mildly funny observation about whatever's at hand. The other will immediately play off that comment, expanding it in both scope and volume (anything's funnier when it's said louder, that's our policy). This continues until we're laughing so hard neither of us can breathe.
Once we've recovered ourselves, another phenomena occurs. We suddenly seem to take the subject seriously and discuss it again. That's how the "semi" conversation got started.
Katie was journaling on her iPad so I, hating to be ignored for 72 seconds, shared my feelings about the colon vs. the semicolon. The semicolon is my favorite grammatical critter; he has that cute little tail. His punctuation options are limited, though. He can't make a list of things like the colon can, and he doesn't have the versatile range of the comma. I wondered aloud why this is. Katie suggested that perhaps he's just not fully evolved. Primordial creatures coming out of the ooze had tails, and so did prehistoric man if the scientists are to be believed. So maybe there's hope for the semicolon.
Thinking about the semicolon led me to thoughts about other "semi' things. Semisweet chocolate-hmm, it's more bitter than sweet so I'd say the semi's pretty semi. Semitrucks-really? If anything qualifies as a truck I'd submit it's the semitruck. I love the prefix "semi"; it has a 'meh' quality to it that just makes me smile. It's so indecisive and leaves lots of room for personal interpretation.
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1 comment:

  1. CatherineSeptember 13, 2010 at 9:10 PM

    I wish I could have been with you and Katie. What fun! My favorite punctuation mark these days in the ellipsis. I use it when I want to suggest thought or pausing, or maybe I hope the reader jumps along with me to the conclusion of my thought, but I don't take them through the whole process. I think it actually speaks to my laziness as a writer. Oh well...at this point, I don't care enough to change. I am a big fan of the semicolon, properly used.

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