Quotation Marks

Words can have many meanings. They depend on their context, the narratives they are derived from, the people using them, and countless other conditions surrounding their usage. Because of this, we’ve come to rely heavily on the use of quotations marks to show that words can have alternate, often time ambiguous “meanings”. It is the current “fashion” in writing/conversation to use these marks of punctuation “liberally”, to the point of being the butt of many a joke and criticism about the “illiteracy” of those who use them “inappropriately” (whether inaudibly, by hand gestures, or in written “form”). It makes me wonder how, in using these marks,  we can distinguish between the words that require them and the ones that don’t. What these marks make the words mean (when used for the purpose of connoting alternate meaning, and not for the purpose of indicating dialogue i.e., “My teeth are not white enough,” he said, “But I think they are lovely,” she replied, or titles of different works i.e., “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles) is in no way specific, but obscure and the “re-interpretation” is left entirely up to the subjectivity of the reader/hearer. But that is already the case with writing/speaking. The interpretation of words, spoken or otherwise, is left entirely up to the subjectivity of the reader/hearer. There is little that quotation marks do to enhance this subjectivity except to show that the ambiguity attributed to the words with the marks is in no way specific to those words, but can be applied to all of them with much of the same affect. So I don’t worry so much at the over-usage of quotation marks to invite a more open interpretation of the meaning of words, I wonder at them not being used all the time. The things we say have so much “meaning.” The “things” we say have so much meaning. The things “we” say have so much meaning. The things we “say” have so much meaning. Don’t be deceived. All of these words are subject to distinctives that have to be explored, probed, and considered in search of meaning. View all words as if surrounded by “quotations,”  if it makes you think about them with more suspicion and creativity. No short cuts. 

pur.pose ['perpus]

• noun

How to live ones life without standing still or moving about aimlessly 

presidential candidates and their celebrity look-alikes

     Hillary Clinton and Emma Thompson, Barack Obama and Reggie Miller, John McCain and Robert Duvall, Mike Huckabee and Kevin Spacey, Mitt Romney and George Hamilton, Ron Paul and Ian McKellen

The “alone in my principles” syndrome

After defending his disdain for religion by saying that there is no shame in opposing organizations that are harmful to society, Bill Maher, while on CNN’s Larry King Live, goes on to regret the lack of mafia influence in Las Vegas (where he will be performing stand-up comedy soon), saying that it’s just not as fun anymore without them. Can you smell the irony? I hope he was joking, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he weren’t. It’s an example of the “alone in my principles” syndrome, a personality trait I’ve started to recognize in myself and in a lot of people who like to be the only ones, the rebels, the outsiders, even if they contradict themselves, because being alone in their principles just makes them feel more right (the syndrome is also characterized by an insatiable hunger for controversy). I may be wrong about Maher, I may be wrong about all of this. I mean, it’s not even a real syndrome! But it’s an experience of myself and others that I suspect I am not alone in. Another way to describe this might be “remnant” theology or ideology, where the few, the survivors, the principled must press on against the pressures of the mainstream. And while I can see the appeal and romanticism of being the underdog, biblically speaking, the remnants in the bible tended to be the few of the wrong who were given a second chance and not destroyed, not the right who keep being beat down and must not give in. Now, I am not referring to those who are left out against their will (the real underdogs and minorities), but those who choose not to play well with others by a false sense of superiority and pride (those who like to feel like it is them against the world, and refuse to listen to others in order to refine their ideas; they are the unteachable). Anyway, it’s quite the epidemic. So in our attempts to be brave and live right, lets not give up, but lets also not forget to be humble and teachable at the same time. 

Life in General

One of our kids’ moms was talking about driving in the snow and how she was telling her kids that if you just don’t go fast nothing bad can happen to you. But if you think about that in regards to life in general, it’s a terrible rule. If your always going slow to ensure that nothing bad happens, you might end up ensuring that nothing EVER happens, which wouldn’t be very much fun. But if you apply the fast rule, ensuring fun, to life in general it could be very unsafe (as is the case with driving fast in the snow). So, in life, sometimes we must go fast and sometimes we must go slow. Experience teaches us when to do which, and this is my opinion about life in general.