In Defense of Prepositions

Any writer who has been at it for a while has already figured out the quick fixes to that so-called problem of having a preposition at the end of a sentence. They have learned how to use phrases like "for which," "in which," "to which," and so on. Most grammar officianadoes also know the phrase attributed to Winston Churchill, "this is the kind of tedious nonsense up with which I will not put." And I'd like to propose that we all stop putting up with it.

I'm not the first person to argue for a written language that more closely resembles the vernacular, and I won't be the last. I also have well-spoken friends who model their spoken language on written language, revising their words on the fly so that they don't accidentally end a phrase or a sentence with a preposition. It's a stylistic choice, and in all matters of style there will be a wide gamut of opinions and flavours of it's-okay-in-these-circumstances-but-not-those-circumstances.

To get to the point. It makes my brain twitch when common phrases and idioms are broken up to satisfy the preposition rule. Force to be reckoned with, and put up with, are two examples which come to mind immediately, but I have edited and corrected several phrases that naturally end with a preposition, but have been tweaked so that that little word is no longer concluding things. I argue that it's more of a strain on your readers to mentally reassemble these phrases in their natural order, than it is for them to figure out what the ending preposition is supposed to be modifying.

That's one of the reasons why prepositions are not supposed to be at the end--to make it clear that this preposition goes with this word. Another reason is because English likes to pretend that it's Latin sometimes, but if that were the case, everyone would understand the genitive case and possessive apostrophes would never be sprinkled all over the place. Aside from Latin scholars, the average reader does not remember the Latin rules of grammar, nor do they remember how those rules supposedly apply to modern English.

I love the written word. I love a well-crafted sentence. When I see a sentence that has been crafted to deliberately avoid placing a preposition at the end, I can even appreciate that--as long as it does not make my brain twitch. A few months ago, I went grammar nazi on Marc at The Eagle & Child over misplaced commas. He argued that some arbitrary grammar rules seem illogical, and posited a change that seemed logical to him. I would have none of it.

You may have none of this, but I would just like to encourage you to consider the nature of our messy, ridiculous language, and accept that a few broken rules may capture its essence more than following old Latin ones.

Everything I've Meant to Blog this Summer: Wedding and Death Edition

Earlier this summer the first of my nieces got married. In the last few years, she is the third of her generation to be wed, and of the three of them, two of them got married privately, and then had a second ceremony for family and friends. Are we a backward lot? Maybe. But it was quite nice to actually go to a ceremony and celebrate together.Such a graceful bride.I also was able to see my grandnephew for the very first time. He is beautiful and adorable, and a ridiculously happy and sweet boy. I'm the Great-Aunt, so he must get some of that from me, right?My nephew, myself, and that little baby is my grandnephew.

I used to hold that young man, just as I held his baby, except imagine me a good bit younger, and imagine my nephew is also a baby. I don't think I could hold him anymore. He's enormous and I am weak.

I spent quite a bit of time with my dad at the wedding. He gets uncomfortable in crowds and noise lately, as he is aging, and his eyesight and hearing are not as good as they used to be. Of all the things to happen to you as you get older, this seems like a manageable thing. He stealthed his way away from the table and went to explore the cemetery across the road from the community hall, so I excused myself and kept him company.

I have a few memories of spending time in cemeteries with my father. I don't really know what the deal is, but he seems genuinely interested in them, and I find it pretty fascinating to look at the tombstones as well. Despite the celebrations, he seemed a touch melancholy. I journaled about it later, and my journals are more about me fumbling for understanding than about recording events, so it's not particularly coherent, but I've re-read it several times since I wrote it and it's been oddly comforting. Here's what I wrote.

The darkness exists, and not to demonstrate the brightness of day, but just to be dark. Here is where binaries should cease to be. There is the dark and it is in us. It is in our life, it is in our death, it is in our soul, and our minds.

I went to the cemetery with my father during my niece's wedding reception. We looked at the tombstones and he said, "Every one of them was once a tiny . . ." He trailed off.

"Baby," I said.

The scent of my grandnephew was still on my shoulder where he drooled and dribbled in my arms.

They exist side by side these things, death and life, and while one cannot be both alive and dead, one can be both light an dark. Don't be afraid of the dark. Don't be afraid of death.

Everything I've Meant to Blog this Summer: Forestry Farm Edition

Kaz and I went to the Forestry Farm first thing on a weekday morning and it was just us, the employees, and the creatures. Kaz made a new best friend.This cat spent the morning hanging out with us.

We go to the Forestry Farm once a summer, and I take the same pics of the same animals every year. We had never seen this cat before, and she took such a shine to Kaz, I took more pics of the two of them than I did of the lions, bears, or llamas.Best friends forever.When we first found the cat, we figured it was a stray that had gotten horribly horribly lost, but we checked its tags and it said Saskatoon Forestry Farm clear as day. We called her "Jingles" because we could hear her tags clink whenever she'd jog to catch up with us.Kaz & Jingles/Belle

When we got home, we checked out the Forestry Farm website, and sure enough, she's listed as a Barn Cat on the page of animals. Her name is Belle. If you see her on your next visit, give her a head scritch for us.

Summer Heat

When I was twelve or so, I set up my tent in our yard and I turned it into my habitat. I read inside of it with the tent flap open during the heat of the day, and whenever I had friends over for sleepovers, we would sleep in the tent with the dictionaries and books pushed against the nylon.

By the way, Mom, this is why one of your big dictionaries is falling apart. It rained, and it got wet, and I apparently knew nothing about how to dry out books in my youth.

I strung an extension cord from the shop to the tent and listened to the oldies radio station while I flipped pages all day long. I don't remember what I read, and I don't remember if there was anything more to that summer than music, words, and the bliss of being unsupervised all the time.

I set up my tent in Cenobyte's yard this week-end. It was a different tent, a different colour, a much bigger size, but the smell of tarp and nylon brought me back to another summer, and when the sun woke me up late in the morning and the heat had soaked through my sleeping bag, my hand searched out the window zipper automatically--without thought or direction.

A Picture Post: Holidays!

As I mentioned, it rained a lot while we were on our annual Riding Mountain vacation. I was looking through my facebook albums and this year was the fifth one in a row that we went there, and it was by far the year with the worst weather. It hailed, twice. It rained every day except for one. The power went out because of electrical storms. But all told, we still had a fantastic time.

Check it:

Rainy view from our chalet.I promised myself I'd play with my camera settings on this trip so that I'd feel more comfortable with adjusting shutter speeds and whatnot with the digital wonder camera. On my old film camera I knew how to make it perform to my liking, but I've been relying on the auto settings a lot now that I've got this expensive hardware. This was one of many shots of the trees in the rain. The only one that turned out properly.

Living area of our chaletI lit a fire every day and spent many hours reading in front of it or gazing into it. All of our stuff smelled of wood smoke by the time we got home. The scorch marks on the fireplace were there when we got there, so it wasn't out doing, but I'm sure I didn't help the situation. I finally finished The Baroque Cycle and was mighty pleased with how it ended, and was a little sad to finish it. I've been reading it for so long it feels odd not to have it as my go-to entertainment. We played a boatload of board games and video games, and watched a lot of television--Riker is watching us back.

Clear Lake!

We did get one sunny day so we fled outdoors. By happenstance we ran into Nad-Jay, her kids, and her mom, who had also fled their homes to take advantage of the sunshine. It was weird: we were tromping around the lake looking for frogs and I heard this eerily familiar voice call out, "That's not yours, so you have to give it back," in a kind (but authoritative) tone. I immediately felt the urge to return whatever it was I had taken as years of being shepherded by Nad-Jay's mom conditioned me to obey. We sought out the voice and had a nice little reunion.

Bears in Shrouds

On our walk around the lake I found these bear carvings all wrapped up in canvas and rope and thought it was the weirdest (and pretty creepy) thing, so I took some photos. Normally Kaz and I count the wildlife we spot and keep a tally of all the cool creatures we see. On the best year we saw a bear, and got within a few feet of a deer. This year... we saw these bears in shrouds, the smallest minnow in the world, a whole bunch of ducks and loons, and two squirrels. On our way home we saw two coyotes. That was it. During our sunny day, I sat on the deck and read and a chickadee landed on my foot. I think it was trying to make me feel better about the lack of wildlife.