Thursday, August 2, 2012

Traditional Spelling Values

The dictionary says there should be an E at the end of More
and that Chicken requires a second C and final En.
A filet is a nice cut of meat 
whether you spell the word correctly or not.
"The dictionary says," and I believe it is right.
But it doesn't affect my life or my family,
one way or the other,
if you choose to ignore it for your own reasons.
Your spelling values differ from my own.
The whole standing cow thing,
the stubborn portrayal of cows who can write, but poorly, 
with blatant misspellings.
How can they write? They have hooves!
Do they hold the paintbrushes in their teeth?
It makes no sense. It doesn't compute. I don't understand.
I'm a traditional speller, but I support your right to misspell.
I am compelled to adhere to the dictionary,
it's how I was taught, I love the English language
even though some of the rules are odd.
But I can celebrate your flair for the creative
and forgive your obvious disdain 
for my own sacred cows.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2012


I heard people talking about eating at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1, as if it had been a religious experience. And that's fine. I applaud a businessman such as Mr. Cathy, who has principles and will stick to them whether he loses money or not. And I think it's ridiculous that some cities would want the franchise to leave because its CEO says something they didn't like. That hurts local businessmen, hurts their own communities.

But the last time I heard, the divorce rate was just as high in The Church as outside its walls. There was about the same rate for unwed pregnancies. The Church is filled with dysfunctional people. That bumper sticker that says  "We're not perfect, just forgiven" is misleading. We ARE forgiven, but so is everyone else. They just don't realize it. So maybe we should all tend to our own families, and spread the word that forgiveness is available to anyone, even to us. I think God can handle the other issues without our illustrious help.

I wrote something more serious first, but decided to turn it around. Sometimes we need to poke a little fun at ourselves, some of us more than others.



4 comments:

  1. Thanks, Ellen - my thoughts exactly!

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    1. Actually, I didn't remove anything. If you made a comment and it doesn't appear, please repost. Thanks!

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