There’s Evil Brewing...

There’s evil magic happening in the world these days. It hovers over everyone, waiting to strike, waiting to set you off in a mad tizzy, and, boy, is it powerful when it’s attacking. (I’d like to be in some of your houses when it comes at you – because I know what it does to me!)

And it took us years to figure out that we cannot entirely control the beast.

The monster is called Spell Check. Yes, that evil technology in which we begin with an unsuspecting, unwary heart. We think it can be trusted…then…when we’re not looking… POW!!!

It changes our words when we’re not looking…or after we looked…and after we corrected what it already changed…and then, we reread for the tenth time, our tiny missive for Facebook or texting or whatever…and we hit send… (How much time have we wasted on this monster?!)

And we glance over the sent words staring at us…and see our logical sentence no longer appears logical…it appears – “What???” And we can hear everyone’s thoughts who are already reading it – because it is instant – and they’re all thinking, “What is she/he talking about???” Yes, there must be three question marks…it is that serious.

Somehow between the last read-through, the hit “send”, and the actual landing of the comment in its wee comment box, IT HAS BEEN CHANGED!!! AGAIN!!! Sometimes this is number 4, or 9, in alterations – and we must wonder when this occurred. Perhaps a blur in our eyes or a piece of lint on our eyeball…or…??? Maybe it altered in the millisecond, outer-technology space??? We now have more question marks than in a politician’s speech. (Umm, are there question marks in a politician’s speech?)

And here comes the word… (mine anyway): “Dang.” There’s the huge sigh, possibly more (much louder) swear words or an inner grimace, depending on how the monster hits (affects) you - or how badly it hits (slams) you. Then we strive to edit it. Once upon a time – and in some formats still – there was/is no edit option. In which case, we would have to create another missive to try and explain the first missive which ends up with more Spell Check “corrections” …and you finally give up. Or send as is...

And if you don’t edit it or get another corrected version out fast enough, someone is already asking you what you are talking about, and what should have been a thirty second comment becomes a twenty-minute typing conversation. (Sometimes, this is fun, and we fool the Spell Check monster.) Hopefully, by the end of the twenty minutes both parties have a basic knowledge of the original thirty second comment – and they are still friends…or family.

Spell Check is the Master of Changing Words, and we trust it, because sometimes it fools us and BEHAVES correctly (that’s a good girl/boy)…until the next time…

Yes, there is true evil in the world.

Happy composing. 😊