TODAY THE WORD is PUNCTUATION. When we were in school, we were taught to use punctuation marks to distinguish our purpose in a statement or in a question. We could show the excitement by using ! (exclamation mark or point) or we could show curiosity with a ? (question mark). We could be boring with a . (period) or rattle on like I do with a , (comma). We could join words with a – (hyphen) or we could hesitate with a bunch of ………(not sure what this was except for a bunch of periods). Let’s see what I am talking about the differences by the same sentence with different punctuations. If I say, “Right?” or if I say, “Right!” or even if I say, “Right!!!!!” you know what I am trying to relay in all three statements and each one can be interpreted differently. Punctuation can reflect our personalities and I, more than a lot of people, misuse punctuation intentionally for impact. It is to emphasize emotions or curiosity or making a point. So many of us are not 100% sure of which punctuation to use in some circumstances as should the comma or semi-colon be used? Semicolons help you connect closely related ideas when a style mark stronger than a comma is needed. By using semicolons effectively, you can make your writing sound more sophisticated (source: 
. Have you been writing and stopped and had to think is this a semi colon moment or a comma? Editors don’t seem to possess as much sense of humor and they really want to stay formal and I agree to a point; I disagree at the same time. I had to get you with the semi colon statement just to have a little fun. Now for the deeper thought…….See how it works! Our lives are similar to punctuation points/marks. Let’s see how it works. A lot of us go through life as periods. There is a routine and we follow it. A different day; it is the same routine for people and they seem content. Some of us are such curious souls and we need the mystery of life to be solved as unsolvable as it seems. We ask what, when, where, and why, don’t we? We are the ones not satisfied like the “period” people. The seekers or question mark people are searching for something in their lives. I find a lot of people are comma people; they run on and on and it is a new problem, or a new issue, or a new relationship day in and day out and it never seems to end. New day; new issue seems to be their focus. Now we are going to the exclamation people! Everything is to be tried, accomplished, and completed with a bang! Nothing can be simple; it has to be a big production and simplicity is not an option. The simplest procedure has to become a Broadway production. The person trying to sort out their thoughts are most likely to be in the semi colon status; their thoughts come and go and they stay on the same subject most of the time whether it be religion, politics, social issues, personal looks and value, etc. Which punctuation mark person signifies your personality closest? I think we are ahead of the game if we are a combination but hopefully, we are not a singular punctuation mark. Life is meant to be a full statement and should be stated with love, adventure, devotion, charity and faith; it is meant to be all it can be, isn’t it? It should be!!!
DAILY FEATURED BIBLE VERSE:
Psalm 90:12
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
(c) copyright 2013 Arline Lott Miller. The material here copyrighted, use only by permission.
