Grace

I don’t waste a lot of time laboring under the burden of unnecessary, unearned guilt. Some people not only take on a mantle of vicarious guilt they haven’t earned, but seem to thrive on it. Martyr complex or something? I never did get that. If I didn't do it, or if I just halfway did it, I'll be damned if I'm going to feel guilty about it.

I’m pretty laid back -- except when I'm suddenly stricken with unforeseen angst -- and studiously avoid deliberately hurting people. I would never deliberately inflict pain, even on someone I don't particularly care for, which I think may keep me in some semblance of grace. It happens accidentally from time to time, of course. It’s usually a case of either unintentionally causing hurt feelings or somebody getting miffed over crossed signals. This is, of course, completely different from direct retaliation for pain deliberately inflicted by someone; i.e., if somebody shoots at me, there’s no way in hell I’m not shooting back. I’m as capable as anyone else of letting loose with a diatribe when necessary. Some people, however, actually do appear to get off on spreading as much deliberate hurt and ill will as possible. They do it just because … they can. I never did get that, either.

I do things – some things -- just because I can. Who doesn’t? It never involves willfully causing unprovoked hurt, though. I do a few teensy benign, self-indulgent things because I can and because I feel like it. If I inadvertently hurt someone, though, and I know it, I feel terrible (and yes, guilty) about it and I’m going to apologize -- just because it’s the decent thing to do. Keeps me in good graces, I hope. The people who live to maul and hurt just because they can, or those who cause injury and then step right over you without a backward glance, I don’t get.

There is such a thing as guilt by association. It’s unfair, of course, but it exists. And honestly, who among us doesn’t subscribe to it on some level? We are, in fact, judged by the company we keep. It’s always been that way, probably always will be. It’s often unfair, but it's human nature, I think. This is not to say that I believe there's any chance in hell that my hillbilly neighbors, their redneck friends, and their whole back woods clan are in actuality fine, refined people possessed of the most delicate of sensibilities. I keep my opinion to myself. Grace? Who knows?

TWISTED LINGUISTICS supposes that our infamous Word Criminals commit their literary crimes for one of two reasons: (1) They don’t know any better (though there’s a canon of law which holds that “Ignorance [of the law] is no excuse") or (2) Because they can. And no, I’m afraid they feel no guilt about it. In fact, they’d probably be hard-pressed to even define or spell guilt.

Intollerance - We think this may be a deviant strain of Deliverance, particularly prevalent in mountainous swamp areas.

It never seems to amaze me - Oh, God -- me, too. I seem to be unable to get amazed, no matter what. I should cease even trying.

Quiet reading it - Yeah, I like quiet when I'm reading, and some quiet time after I quit reading it as well.

Defaintly - DeLady saw the deWords gone deWild and she dePassed out.

Experiance - An experiment involving ants gone horrifyingly awry.

Writting - What a writter does, of course.

First name bases - Well, duh -- it does help to know somebody's name before making it to first base.

And for the pièce de résistance, I give you:

We could not of did it without you.

I'm personally administering the coups de grâce and sticking the lethal injection to that one.