Dr. Phil just one more thing. Gotta minute? I mean afterall, I paid my entry fee into this land of fantasy, aka on-line dating. One of my pet peeves is people misusing words. It hurts my ears. I do however, struggle with whether or not to correct someone. I personally like to be corrected, as to me there are few things more embarrassing than using a word improperly. This is an instance where I can take being humbled. To prove my point, when my ex-husband told me "penultimate" meant "next to last" and not "the best or quintessential" I was grateful. I admit I fought his correction for a minute, shaking off his smugness, but hey the guy was right, there it was right before my eyes in the dictionary. I was an English major so I do feel an allegiance to words.
There is however, a new language with which I realize I am totally unfamiliar. It's the language of "ing" and it's spoken almost exclusively on internet dating sites. Whereas I have always thought it was simply an ending to a part of speech, I've come to realize it holds more meaning. In cyber dating it knows no grammatical boundaries, it's mutated into something much much bigger...defining character!
"Ing" is typically used in the profile questionnaire regarding personality issues.
"What is your ideal relationship?", is a common question and I've read dozens and dozens of answers on more than one site, and here's the common answer:
My ideal relationship is one in which there's , sharing, caring, trying , talking, crying, laughing, sighing, explaining, communicating, and listening. The "ing" language continues on with the answer to "Tell us about yourself": I'm sharing, caring, trying, listening, communicating, laughing, crying, hugging, kissing, walking, talking, caressing. Hold on there Dr. Phil, don't answer yet, it just gets worse. "What is your perfect first date?" When there's talking, communicating, laughing, sharing, walking (always on the beach) and thank God, no crying! And last but not least, "What have you learned from past relationships?" There should have been more talking, caring, listening, communicating, sharing, caressing, explaining, relating, walking (more beach time).
My ears hurt! Should I correct these people? Would it be constructive to call the date who said he loved "talking" to me and thought we were "relating" so well he asked me out and then stood me up, to tell him he was "lying"? Or is that too much "sharing"? I'll NEVER forget the widower who told me that the best thing that ever happened to his marriage was his wife "DYING".
"Ing" is a very hard language; much more difficult than it seems. If it was spoken correctly no one would be divorced because there really would have been: caring, sharing, talking, communicating, explaining, listening, hugging, kissing, far less walking, and more screwing.
So Dr. Phil, after listening to all of this you have a lot of explaining to do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment