perfection

"Why do people want to spell tacos with an apostrophe? Here it is again!" This is my daughter talking about a local ad in a penny saver. Some time ago, I had gone into Hot Harry's Burrito Bar and complained to one of my ex-students about their spelling of Taco's on the window in front of the restaurant. He said he had mentioned it to the boss some time ago, but I think he was covering. Probably only a handful of people ever notice or care. They have fixed the apostrophe.

The larger question is for myself. Why do I care? The error did not "hinder comprehension" in any way. The answer to this is layered somewhere in Nietzsche's idea that it is in our nature to impose our will on the world, to make it conform to the standards we create. He says that all moral systems are "natural" in the sense that they always operate at an almost instinctive level. We almost always feel that somehow, somewhere, deep down, we are right. Nietzsche said we cannot abide by Laissez Alles (Let it Go). We must insist on things to conform to a rule.

This may explain why when playing Dicetopia over the break, Whitney and Laurel had to check my list of six letter words beginning with the letter S. You got 30 seconds to come up with the longest list. Mine was the longest by about two or three words. I thought we would just say how many words we came up with and be done with it. But Whitney asks, "read off your list" to me. Like I need monitoring... I was a famous cheater as a child, and I continue with that tradition, at least from her point of view. I consider my cheating simple carelessness with a slight benefit to me. I misread one of my words, and they both pounced, saying that has seven letters. Now Laurel pulls her pencil out and starts crossing off things and I'm down to 10, equal to the number she had. Now I'm feeling attacked and singled out, so I look at her list. It has a combination "word" made of two words, so I cross that off. Then I read another one that is misspelled, and so I cross that off too. And to press the issue, I'm not allowing possessives, so their's is out too! Why not just Laissez Aller?

Let me tell another story- actually two related stories... It's Christmas Eve, and Pastor Dave is giving his children's sermon and he explains that Jesus' birthday is on December 25. I look over at Whitney in the other choir loft, and she looks back and we both shake our heads- no, we are saying via telepathy... no one knows when Jesus was born; that date was taken from a Roman festival celebrating the winter soltstice. Everyone knows that! Stop lying to the kids. Laissez Aller? It's Christmas Sunday now, and I've gone to church with Jane and Vinny. No one to kibbutz with in my pew because the Cervonis are ushering. So the pastor starts explaining how journeys are so central to the human story, how the Greeks told so many stories about having to go do something somewhere and get back safely. I'm thinking... yes, my sci fi and fantasy kids would be thinking, yes we know all about the Quest! It is the core to any adventure story. A knight, a princess, a dangerous road, a dragon, a dark knight (nemesis), a holy grail, and a deeper lesson learned. That's the formula. But this pastor starts well, and then makes a terrible error. He says, as an example, "Like Ulysses and the Golden Fleece..." I start thinking... Odysseus never went after the golden fleece- that was Jason with his Argonauts. As soon as we return to the house, I'm on line checking. Yes, Ulysses has a golden fleece adventure, but that's some lame video game. The real Ulysses/Odysseus never did that! Did he bother to check? I know.... Laisses Aller, right?

Right now, I'm going to have to go on line because I can't remember if the phrase from Nietzsche is Laisses Aller or Laisses Allez. If I'm wrong, and it's the second, I'll need to go back and edit this post so that it's right. Or maybe I'll try... just this once... to laisses allez.