A thousand words: that is my goal and how many I said I would jot down throughout this post.  By all rights that is not a lot for a blog, with most clocking in at a count of roughly 1,500, so it may not sound all that ambitious, lofty or soaring as far as word counts go, and it may not ring out to you as difficult, laborious or tough, but I vow to you this: it is, and in hindsight I wish I had bound this post to a goal without such high aspirations.

Today is a day that marks a conclusion to a task that, at a point long, long ago in my so far 14,609 days of living, I had sworn to do. I can’t pin down on what day I put this goal forward, and I don’t truly know at what point I thought it could or would add ‘fun’ or ‘growth’ to my world, nor what, if any, good it would bring to this aspiring author.  No, I can’t think of a root ‘why?’ to this ambition, but I am going to do it anyway.  If I can actually hold and sustain you as I work through it is still unknown, and I admit that I don’t fully know at this point how it will all go down…but I am going to try it out anyway.

It’s funny – for as far into my past as mind can call up I always had a passion for words.  Looking back, I can summon up many happy thoughts of our local tabloid dropping at our door Saturday morning and I would rush to scoop it up. For most kids, it was all about comics, but not so much for this guy, I was all about cryptograms and a brainy conundrum in contrast to a funny cartoon; though, I am still human and l do fancy a classic Gary Larson strip now and again.  For yours truly, I would jump right into various crosswords, word hunts and a daily quandary, in which you had to shift around a mix of symbols, both consonants and non, until you could form a logical word and funny quip out of it all.   It was a highlight of my day – a custom and a habit I was proud of,  and I would carry that passion and habit throughout my high school days, into culinary school and right up to today.  Words act as a conduit to a world in which I am most happy.

As for why I find words so fascinating and alluring, I think it’s that, in part anyway, a story can shift so quickly in mood and spirit or from fact to fiction by simply adding or taking away a scant and unassuming combination of vocabulary or articulation.  You can transform a story of horror, pain and fright into that of passion, lust and bliss, or shift a paragraph around so as to bring about sorrow and anguish vs. humour and whimsy with only slight variations in construction…not that I want this particularly story to go down a dark and sorrowful corridor; wholly contrary to that – this is a post about joy, jubilation and owning up and following through with what I said I would do so many moons ago.

This particular branch of my ‘journal’ may not wind up in a hall of glory and acclaim, but as our kids grow, I want and wish for my passion for all things linguistic to pass down.  Alison and I know that all of our actions occur in plain sight of two girls who look up to us with both curiosity and scrutiny, and so it is with caution that our words must follow.  How our discussions go, not just in front of our kiddos but within our total family unit, occurs in such a way as to display compassion, warmth and thanks for our full family troop, and that starts with not just what words occur, but how you say what is on your mind.  Always truthful and virtuous, our discussions highlight said compassion, mutual adulation, and trust for all within our familial unit.

Now, as far as actual blog posts go, you probably know by now that I can rant about Star Wars, tattoos, various dairy products, my
kids, food and music without worrying too much about grammatical wrongdoings.  But this post is distinct in that is naturally not about any topic in particular, this is strictly about construct.  It is outwardly just a rambling compilation of paragraphs and random thoughts brought forth . For many of you this may wind up as nothing but annoying and what I am striving for will chalk up to nothing but silly absurdity, circuitous irrationality, rampant lunacy and just plain rubbish.  I admit it: this is an odd account; a task without a point, and for that I would not pass along any criticism your way if you opt not to go on from this mark.  For yours truly though, I am hoping that by its conclusion you will grasp what I am trying to do and acquit this author for any of short comings; that is a risk I am willing to bring on.

And so, alas! I spat out a post that is broadly about nothing, though in part about sharing my passion for linguistics and passing that down to my offspring.  What was my inspiration?  Who knows? I think what you mainly want to know, though, is what was my goal anyway? What is my long standing vision and my justification for this?  Why all of this rambling and ballyhoo?    It was a most trivial task but I am happy to say that I am, at last, victorious. All in all, and truth told, this was an arduous workout for my brain that I always thought worth trying and it is, without a doubt, difficult to a point I did not initially grasp.  Hard as it is, though, I am glad for it to finally look upon light of day.

My goal was this: to construct a rational story or post that took into account all glorious parts of our local vocabulary, and with any luck gain insights into unfamiliar wording, idioms, locution and diction, all without counting on that which so many of us so unknowingly and subconsciously toss into our day to day without control.  A thousand words (1,151, actually) spanning many paragraphs and random facts, musings and ramblings and at no point throughout did I adopt, apply, draft, scrawl, jot down or print that which most commonly occurs throughout so many Canadian words…

I did not, at any point, until now that is, (and you can look back if you must) call upon our most popular affair in local jargon: That’s right, on no account throughout this post will you find an ‘E’.

Boom.  Mic drop.  Thanks for humouring yours truly.