Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A Diction Addiction

If my mind was a book, it would be old and leather-bound. The spine would be cracked and the pages worn and yellowed. It would be thicker than War and Peace with smaller print than the Bible. There would be an entire chapter devoted to the lyrics of Brand New, and another for every poem I wrote during my sophomore year of high school. You would find it shelved next to the encyclopedias, across the aisle from biographies of presidents and dead movie stars.
I’m addicted to words. Seriously, I eat them up. I could stay awake for days fueled by nothing but coffee and my love of language. I spend my free time pouring over books and blogs and lyrics. I have notebooks and Word files filled with my favorite lines. I quote Mean Girls and Juno daily and about 95% of my Facebook statuses are lyrics. I repeat Bible verses over and over in my head, and then I’ll write them on notecards and hang them up. I often find that the best way God reveals Himself for me is through short, powerful phrases. I want to work my way through a dictionary and memorize a thesaurus, and when all of those words run out, I want to make more.
                I live for conversations with my best friend over a slice of pie and a cup of coffee. I look forward to the day when I’ll be able to sit on the couch with my husband and just talk about the day. I sit in the dark, letting lyrics fill my head. In the summer, I will walk to the library and stay there until I have finished reading a novel.
                I see grace in margins and love in punctuation. I feel comfort in consonants and energy in vowels. I think there is something beautiful in putting words to emotion. It’s okay to feel something, but I can’t deal with it, can’t fix it, until I can describe it. I want to understand my life in some tangible way. I want to hear it whispered in prayers or see it scribbled in composition notebooks. So if you ever want to get to know me, all you have to do is ask and I’ll open up like a book. And my hope is that someday you’ll let me read you too.

1 comment:

Carole said...

Hey, nice blog. As someone addicted to words, you might be interested in my series of posts explaining cryptic crosswords. If you haven't got into them already, you might get hooked! I find them just so much more satisfying than ordinary crosswords. This is the first in what has now evolved into a daily series. http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/cryptic-crosswords-solving-hints-1.html