On Making Mistakes...Grammatical and Otherwise

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

We all Make Mistakes

I spent my life making mistakes, let me tell ya.  Big ones, small ones, medium sized ones...any sized ones.  I made and make mistakes.  I had a very, very honorable life to date. lol

A Tiny Mistake; Many Tiny Mistakes

One little chronic mistake was brought to my attention yesterday. It was just a trivial spelling error but once I realized it, I was floored as if I committed some major crime.  For as long as I can remember I spelled Author..."Authour".  I would ignore the spell check and continue with what I was so sure was the right Canadian spelling of the word.  I am not sure why I had that particular conviction in my head but it was ingrained in there. 

Every time the red line would flash and I would check for the computer's spelling of the word...I would tell myself, "That is the American spelling.  I am determined to spell it like a Canadian."  And I would keep that "u" so proudly in there.  I used my version of the spelling on everything I wrote and in any way I could.  I sent that word to publishers and agents ...to students and readers.  I was arrogantly convinced and felt no need to question. 

Then yesterday, I seen the word spelled "Author" in a Canadian text...and it was like, "What?  The editors  are succumbing to spell check too?"  I had to investigate farther... to look it up to be sure.  Everywhere I looked it was spelled "Author".  Then it dawned on me... of course it is Author...not authour because it is not doctour or actour. The suffix used to define a person's role   is "or" not "our".   Ouch!

Then I thought of all the grammar mistakes I made over the years on essays, submissions and even on publications.  I wrote  as a columnist for a paper once ...and the editor requested I send in the original piece.  He never edited my work.  Every spelling and grammatical error a person could make when they are writing off the cuff was  exposed across the paper every week.  I had people from the community calling me up to give me grammar lessons. It was humiliating. 

That is how my writing is remembered by some.  One individual let it slip that he and his family looked forward to reading my articles each Sunday.   It was a fun way to sit with the fam and count all the mistakes I made.  What a blow to the writer ego in me, that was to hear that.  Man...that is not what writing is intended for lol.  So my misspelling of the word "Author" brought that to mind...and with it, more than a little humiliation.

Humbling

The humiliation eventually settled in to a feeling of being humbled.  Humble is a wonderful place to be for learning to take place.  So I will learn from this. I will never spell that word incorrectly again. I will be much more mindful of grammar and spelling.    I will appreciate the tools on this computer that help me to write better English and I will try to be more humble in my writing adventures as well as in my life!

What is the moral of this story?

I have learned a lot from my mistakes...and not just the grammar and spelling ones I have made over the years...all mistakes. We all make mistakes.  Even the people who found enjoyment exploiting or picking out mine, make mistakes. It is human to error. 

It is honorable to error. It is honorable because it is humbling...mistakes offer an opportunity or a way of stripping back layers of ego to get to who we really are.  All that arrogant, "Look at me and how perfect I am in what I can do, what I have, and  the success I achieved" stuff, is not who we are.  We are perfect beings under imperfect personas that make mistakes.  Mistakes put holes in our perfect personas so the real us can shine through. Humility is not a diminishing quality ...it is one that expands.  Once we accept humble we can learn and we can grow.

So I made mistakes in my writing and in my life. At least I stuck my neck out there and I wrote like my heart so wanted me to do.  I put myself on the line, left my imperfect mistake bound person open for criticism...in order to follow my bliss. I continued to write, continued to make even more mistakes and grow.  I didn't spend my life doing nothing.  I was an "Authour" and an "Author." lol  How many people can claim that distinction?


All is well in my world.