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Eats shoots and leaves

Eats shoots and leaves

I was part of the generation that was not taught English grammar or punctuation at school.

Just in case you are wondering, yes it had been invented by then!  However, our teachers felt that an over focussing on the mechanics of written structure could hinder the free flow of ideas. Some educationalists reasoned that if children had a love of literature, they would somehow “catch” the importance of grammar.

In many ways, they were right.  In my own case, I have always had a love of literature.  From an early age, I appreciated Winnie the Pooh and the wise humour of that tubby bear.  As I entered the exam system, I discovered Shakespeare and Dickens and, through my faith, I loved the great narratives and depth of doctrine found in scripture.

To confound the educationalists, despite my reading, I never seemed to ‘catch’ the meaning of nouns, verbs, graphemes and diagraphs (I had to look that up, as I wrote this!).

It was only in later life, studying New Testament Greek, that I found my lack of English Grammatical knowledge hampered my learning the complexities of Greek!  I had to learn English structures before I could makes sense of the Greek structures.

As for punctuation! (or should that be a ‘?’) I still struggle to work out where the little dots and dashes on a page go.

Lynne Truss in her wonderful book “Eat, shoots and leaves” says this;

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.)

(Eats, shoots and leaves)

In the same chapter, she gives the well-known example

Woman, without her man, is nothing

Woman: without her, man is nothing

The punctuation gives meaning to the words.

So, what does all this mean?  I have been thinking about how our lives need those moments of punctuation.

God gave weekly punctuation, through the Sabbath.  A breath pause in the midst of life’s busy-ness.  There are times when we need a slightly longer pause through time off and holidays.  Sometimes, we need to start a new paragraph in our lives as we head in a different direction.

Whatever this year holds for you, make sure there is some punctuation in it.  It will help your life to make sense.