If Grammarly can quit, so can I
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The protruding tongue is not meant for you.
Unless you are Deanna Bugalski 💋, who asked, “What are you judgmental about?”
Or Rodrigo S-C, who answered in his inimitable way.
Here Comes the Judge
Tiptoeing into dangerous territorymedium.com
Both were over there in the corner of my writing room with their arms folded in condemnation as I wrote another story this morning. I thought, they’re right, I really should be writing about this judgmentalism deal.
But to finish THAT story I imagined aiming my tongue at them. You know, what we did when were eight years old.
Even Emmy Lou wonders when I was going to get around to this story.
Of course, astute reader, you know I’m projecting my critical assessment about what I should be doing onto Deanna, Rodrigo and Emmy Lou.
And playing it lightly with a tongue-in-cheek approach.
Judging is forming an opinion about something. Who wants to give that up? Who could give that up?
What do you think about Donald Trump?
Was slavery a good thing?
Is Global warming caused by human behavior?
Do you like Grammarly?
I’m guessing you have an opinion about each.
However, judgmentalism is something else. It’s having an overly critical point of view. That’s where I struggle, have always struggled.
So much so that my deluxe writing assistant has, much to my confusion, refused to render judgments on this story, other than “nice job, you made that look easy.”
I’ve tried everything including misspelling words and, the ultimate test, typing old man. Old man usually brings the politically correct god down, as in “The term old man might be considered disrespectful.”
Nothing works. The G stays green even after the yellow frowny face.
I’ve shut down Medium, Grammarly, and my MacBook Pro. I’ve even copied the story and added it as a new story — the Green G mocks me.
Grammarly eagerly flashes purple for my email, Facebook, and Medium comments’ transgressions. For six Medium drafts as well.
I feel like the narrator in Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart,
Am I mad?
Or, perhaps, Grammarly is teaching me a lesson, by momentarily dying for my sins.
Judgment is fine, it’s saying, but judgmentalism — having an overly critical point of view — is going too far. It’s a lousy way to go through life.
For example, this morning I went out at 7:15 AM to get us coffee and pastries at a new shop downtown. As I manuevered into the empty parking lot bordering the darkened store, I squinted at the tiny hours sign: 8 am — 2 pm M — S.
All the way home I muttered over and over, what coffee shop opens so late, particularly one just getting started. Why aren’t the hours BOLDENED AND IN CAPS.
And why have I let my car’s dashboard get so dusty?
Medium, taking control and channeling 2001 Space Odyssey’s Hal, seems to be saying “Who wants to go through life this way?”
Instead, why not, as a default perspective,
Take the advice of the Christmas hymn, “All Is Well.”
I’ll give it a go.
I hope you do as well especially after you’ve counted the cumulative grammar mistakes in this story.
