WHY IS IT?..AND THIS AND THAT

I wonder about a lot of things. Sometimes the things I wonder about are not really important matters, such as business or Eternity, but about things that don't necessarily matter. They're just observations about people and the things they do or say. This is one of those 'why is its'? For our discussion of 'Why is it' examples, here's a small one, just to break the ice: Why does it MATTER whether the little quotation mark ... ' ... comes BEFORE or AFTER the question mark?

Who was the decision-maker with that little mark? WHY DOES IT MATTER? After all, years ago, all our teachers were real sticklers about rules of grammar...using 'he' or 'she' in a sentence...and when one did not know which to refer to, we would use the cumbersome 'he or she' a dozen times in an article, letter or speech. Now we have thrown all that out the window and we don't use personal pronouns anymore as much as we used to...now we freely mix all kinds of pronouns and non-pronouns for ease in communication. The old rules of grammar are gone! Do what you want! Speechwriters and politicians and Hollywood stars -- even teachers in public schools and professors in universities -- the former bastions of correctness in the use of language -- have ripped the rudder from their ships of grammatical correctness and now ply the seas of written and spoken language, riding with the wind -- without even a nod of the head given to the Master of the ship or his helmsman, the Keeper of the Compass of Proper Communication.

I have a theory about this apparent abandonment of the once-sacred rules of grammar. It seems to me that 'proper' grammar went out the window about the time some people began wearing tennis shoes and flip flops to church (no, Gena, I won't make the mistake again of calling them 'thongs'....I've learned better). Also when people stopped eating an evening meal together at a dining room table, and began eating at the bar in the kitchen, or standing up by the kitchen sink. Or when guys started wearing earrings and when some men and women began 'coming out of the closet', as it were, with all the ridiculous pairings that followed. When the word 'gay' became anything BUT gay. When holding a door for a woman was often viewed as gratuitous and chauvinistic -- even sexist. When good manners were no longer de rigueur. When people began openly cursing in public and wearing clothing with really, really foul pictures and comments. A lot of our society seemed to sort of casual-down.

Many men stopped wearing coats and ties to "wait on the table" in church. Speaking of that -- take another look at the term 'waiting on the table' -- another archaic expression -- from the sound of it, like we're expecting the table to do or say something, so we patiently 'wait' on the table). Maybe a better expression would be: 'wait tables' at church. That might more accurately convey the activity. The men could accurately be referred to as waiters, or wait-staff, as they are called at restaurants. While we're shifting over to church-related ponderings: How about the ever-present "SHALL we pray"?...or "SHALL we BE standing?" instead of something a little more contemporary, such as, "let's pray"...or "let's stand". After all, how do you BE standing...is that sort of like "We BE goin' to town"? On the other hand, after thinking about that last thought, we don't want to say "Let's stand up", since that is redundant...sort of like saying "raise the window up". If you stand, of course it's 'up'...how else do you stand except by an upward movement? Also, who says 'shall' anymore? 'Shall' is coming, more and more, to sound like one of those 'church words.'

Another church word is 'brethren', a word in common usage since before the 12th century...plural form of the word brother, and used in formal or solemn address or used when referring to members of a society, profession or sect...maybe no longer a NOW kind of word. Who knows? Just a thought...The word brethren is used to mean the community of believers...men and women...and yet it is derived from the word 'brother'.. Should we, in a splurge of equality, refer to women as Sisteren or Sistren?...thereby giving women their own identity, instead of lumping them under a word with male origins? Of course, if we did that, then the very word, woMEN, needs an overhaul, since it carries an 'Eve from Adam' connotation. Just like the word 'mailman'.....'MAIL-PERSON' won't do. MAIL-CARRIER won't do...(there's that 'Male-sounding word' again)....I guess we could use LETTER-CARRIER. Or we could latch onto 'PERSON-PERSON'....That seems safe enough, for these very, very careful, delicate, politically correct days in which we live. We live in a time when people don't take chances with some things, such as political correctness, and then throw caution to the wind and take all kinds of chances with casual sex, drugs, and cheating on their taxes. Go figure.

Speaking of 'not taking chances', I want to share something with you you may find to be funny ------

I remember, as a child, living in the 1950's, when we would drive from Houston or Dallas up to Sherman, TX to see my grandmother Tennie. We would often sit outside her home in the evenings, since Tennie did not have air conditioning back then. It was hot in that house of hers. We would sit outside and listen to all the night sounds. Sometimes we would enjoy a Grapette soda or a Dr. Pepper. If it was early enough in the evening, we would often pile into Dad's car and head off to downtown Sherman where we would get an ice cream cone at Ashburn's (the best ice cream on earth!). We would get our ice cream cones and then get back into the car and sit there slowly enjoying our ice cream cones and watching the farmers and their wives, who had driven in off the farm to have an ice cream cone. The old farmers had on their overalls and the farm women (usually generously-sized women, in faded print dresses and those lace-up 'practical shoes') would stand in front of the counter, heads raised, looking carefully and with great deliberation at the huge array of flavors that were available. The men would stand there, often with their thumbs tucked into the straps of their overalls. The women would stand there, demurely with their hands together, maybe a little uncomfortable at being in the CITY, standing in front of so many CITY-FOLKS, reading the signs:..'Hawaiian Delight'...'Cherry Vanilla'...'Tutti-Fruitti... .and on and on. After pointing at the signs (there must have been 50 flavors), they almost invariably both selected Vanilla! After all, they must have been thinking, 'You just can't be too careful! Let's go with vanilla...it's a SURE THING.'.....why is it like that? We live in a time when most people will not put their thoughts down for the world to read and maybe enjoy. Most people will voyeuristically enjoy others' thoughts, but do not, for some reason, want to disclose THEIR thoughts. They will read someone elses' thoughts, and not ever comment on another person's ramblings-- maybe so they don't accidentally disclose something that would betray agreement, or dissention, interest or disinterest. You just can't be too careful! (Maybe I better just stick with Vanilla...it's safe).

EVERYONE HAS HIS (OR HER) STORIES TO TELL...(maybe, with the New Age Grammar, I should have said: EVERYONE HAS THEIR STORIES TO TELL)..stories of interest to many of the rest of us. You only go around once in this life. Open up! Don't be a VANILLA PERSON!...TRY THE HAWAIIAN DELIGHT OR THE TUUTTI-FRUITTI...try ALL of the flavors!

Take a chance! Share your thoughts with the rest of us!

Oh, the weighty matters that occupy our random thoughts. Gena, you're the Random Thoughts Girl...the master of the This And That.. why is it.?...that things ARE as they ARE? WHY IS IT?...