To writing

There are many things I learned in school for which I am thankful.  Some are even usable in real life.  Example:  How to tell time.  Look at the digital clock.  How to tell when a train that leaves New York doing 60 miles an hour and a train that leaves San Francisco doing 50 miles an hour will crash since the person doing the scheduling was hitting the sauce and they were on the same track.  Veni, vidi, vici.  I came, I saw, I conquered.  Boy, have I ever used that!    How to say “Greet the wife” in Russian.  I really can’t tell you how much trouble I could/should be in if I ever referred to Cath as “the wife”!  Yup.  And then, there were the outright lies perpetuated in math class.  Example:  Pie Are Squared! Everyone knows that Pie Are Round!  But I scoff.  There were two people that changed my life in high school.  One was June LaRose.  Really!  Her name!  Ninth grade English. Vocabulary words.  Every freaking week!  Somewhere, I still have the flash cards.  First word, permeate…to pass through.  And there 999 more!  I don’t know why, but I learned to love words!  Bless you JuJu (and if you ever tell anyone that’s what we called her, I will deny it intensely!) Then of course there was Lee Paulson.  Senior English. Composition.  It was Lee who taught us how to use those words in prosaic form.  Creativity was important.  Structure was important.  Thought was important.  Words were important.  Practice was important.  From Lee I learned syntax.  From Lee I learned comparison/contrast.  From Lee I learned that every rule was made to be broken at some time if needed to stress a point.  I also learned that when those rules were broken, it must be intentionally.  Use ain’t as if it’s a word, and all hell would break loose.  Use ain’t to make a point, and it’s perfectly acceptable.  From Lee, I also learned that anyone can be taught how to construct a grammatical sentence.  Anyone can parse a part of speech. But the truly great writers know how to do this in such a way that you don’t notice it.  Writers like Harper Lee.  Writers like J.D. Salinger.  Writers like John Dos Passos.  Writers like Janet Evanovitch.  Okay, okay, but she’s a hoot!  And I want to meet Grandma Maser!  I guess if you’re looking for someone to blame for this blog, start with those two!  While I ain’t, Harper, J.D., John, or even Janet, I love to write, and every once in a while, I do manage to construct a sentence or two.  And more importantly, I enjoy it!  And hey, you’ve read to this point, right?  Thanks!  And know you are loved!