Mamacita says:  It’s 2:30 in the morning, and I have to get up in a few hours and go to school, and be all enthusiastic about punctuation.

The thing is, I AM enthusiastic about punctuation. It’s important.

It tell us when to pause, and when to stop. It tells us when to end a sentence on a vocal inflection. It tells us when we are stating, and when we are questioning.

Think about math. What would it be without the symbols that tell us exactly what to do with the numbers and letters? That’s punctuation.

Think about music. All over the page, there are symbols that tell us what to do with the notes and the words. The pauses are just as important as the notes. So are the silences.

The pauses, and the silences, are as much a part of the beauty of the music as are the notes and the lyrics.

It’s the same with our spoken language. It is, after all, an ART. The Language Arts are as much of an art form as are the musical arts, or the studio arts. Done properly, language should flow from us, or from the page, as music flows.

With most of language, we instantly know when something is not said or written properly; the musical flow of the language is gone. The problem is, every geographical region has its own particular language idiosyncracies, and we get used to hearing them. Then, when we are taught that a way of expressing ourselves is incorrect, we are astounded. How could it be incorrect? Everyone we know says ‘it’ that way.

Maybe, maybe. . . . .

But the way we express ourselves opens doors, and slams doors shut, before us when we don’t even know it. We are judged daily on our ability to communicate our thoughts to others. And when we communicate poorly, we are judged and found wanting. Fair? Not always, but think: don’t we all put people on ‘levels’ according to their language? Good grammar connotes intelligence, like it or not.

Doctors, lawyers, dentists. . . . . most professionals use fairly good grammar. We expect it of them. We don’t want our brain surgeon to sound like Jethro Bodine, do we? I think not.  It would be hard to trust one of the Beverly Hillbillies to cut us open if he/she hadn’t even learned how to use the language properly.

Our language standards are not as high with some other jobs. I think this is a shame.

Language is such an awesome wonder. . . . think about it for a minute. It connects us to others, and all of education, and much of life, is about connections. It also enables us to share, as well as to conceal, our thoughts. Some days, I’m not sure which is more important.

I should probably go on to bed. I’m lecturing again. Sometimes, it just pours out of me when I don’t realize it. Now that I realize it, I should stop.

That’s hard, for me. I love our language dearly. I hope you can tell.