As is my habit, i reread my first post about my academic pursuits, “A Short Happy Time in Academia, Part I” this morning. As usual it was chocked full of errors, mostly grammatical or missing something i had intended to include — almost never something i needed to delete: After writing newspaper articles and columns with a limit of 750 words for most of my life, i am free and celebrate my verbosity.
As i began to edit the post again, several thoughts washed over me.
i am not like other writers. i am not a good editor. i am not ashamed to admit it.
Like i should not publish my posts until i’ve scoured them with a fine-toothed comb and am sure all of the errors have been corrected. Nope. Early on, you get my stuff hot off the press, just as i wrote it, errors and all. i think you get a better idea of me…or maybe i’m just damn lazy. Other writers don’t do that. They are good editors, and there are very few errors after they have concluded their scrubbing. They want to cast a long shadow of expertise and sophistication. They want to project professionalism. Me? i ain’t too hot on projecting something i’m not (and against the protests of many, continue to use the incorrect “ain’t” in my writing, for example).
Oh yeh, i’m stubborn about that. i’m really a pocket of resistance. When someone tells me i can’t, shouldn’t, ought not to, mustn’t write or do something, that sin will most likely appear in my next piece of writing.
It struck me i am like that in many, many respects. It ain’t better or worse than what most folks do or think. It’s just me. i am all over the place in almost every line of thought, politics, religion, earth science, medicine, philosophy. Truly a pocket of resistance, i admit.
That, and many other things, leads me to the conclusion i am a bit odd, not like other folks.
i am so odd, i know there is only one woman who would put up with me for long periods of time. And i happen to be married to her.
And i am a lucky man.
Oh yes, the corrections i made to my last long post have been made…at least for now.