David N. Walker's Blog, page 37

Misuse of Pronouns

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

On Forensic Fridays, we dissect the English language to see what it’s made of and how to use it properly. Today we’re going to discuss consistency in the person of pronouns we use.

To remind us of another of those classes we may have slept through in school, person identifies who is the subject, object or predicate nominative. First person is I or we. Second person is you. Third person is he, she or they. At least, those are the nominative case pronouns, used for subjects and predicate nominatives. Those used for objects of verbs or prepositions are me and us for first person, you for second person, and him, her or them for third person. I hope this all rings at least a vague bell.

The other day I came across the statement “When I’m having a bad day on the field, you just have to buckle down and try harder.” Did this athlete really mean to say that when he’s having a tough time you and I need to buckle down? Of course not. He meant to say “I have to buckle down.” I don’t know why he didn’t say what he meant, but I do know that I hear such statements very commonly.

Since the example mentioned above comes from a statement by an football player being interviewed, I’d like to be able to say this type of mistake is caused by the pressure of being interviewed in the heat of the moment after a game is over. I’d like to say that, but, unfortunately, I can’t. This type of error is much more ubiquitous than that. I think I’ve even caught it a time or two in blogs, although I’m sure it was not yours.

Using you as sort of a universal word to include all of us is pretty common, and there’s not necessarily anything wrong with it. Statements like, “When you’re up to your elbows in alligators, it’s hard to remember your objective is to drain the swamp,” are very expressive, and we all understand them. No problem there. Just don’t say, “When I’m up to my elbows in alligators, it’s hard to remember your objective is to drain the swamp.” Now we don’t know who was supposed to drain the swamp.

To avoid making this particular mistake, we just need to think through our statement and be sure we have the same person in the conditional statement (when up to the elbows . . .) mentioned in the unconditional statement (remembering to drain the swamp).

What grammatical misuse bothers you? What particular area of grammar would you like help with? I’d love to hear and help.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx@gmail.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: David N. Walker author, Editing tips, Grammar and usage, Grammar rules, grammar tips, pronouns, usage of pronouns, writing tips

Who Am I? What Am I?

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

On Worshipful Wednesdays, we take a look at God’s word and His kingdom to see what we can learn about ourselves, Him and/or our relationships with Him.

For several days I’ve reflected on a couple of questions our Sunday School teacher asked Sunday. First, he asked, “Who are you?” Then, he asked, “What are you?”

Does this sound like two questions asking the same thing? When we stop to think about it, the two questions are asking for totally different answers. Unfortunately, many of us confuse the two.

If you ask me what I am, I might tell you I’m a novelist. Or a devotional writer. Or just an author. I might even tell you I’m a retired insurance agent. All of these answers would be correct for this question.

These same answers would be completely incorrect, however, if you asked me who I am. The trouble is, we often think they are appropriate answers to who we are.

Who I am has to do with my personality, my character—not with how I earn a living. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but Americans in general, in American men in particular, tend to think of their work as defining who they are.

If I define myself by the work I do, that implies that my work is the most important aspect of me and of my life. It would be sad for that to be true.

Who I am is a sinner saved by grace, being conformed to the image of Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit. Who I am is a husband who thoroughly and deeply loves his wife and want only the best for her. Who I am is a father who loves his daughter, and by extension, her family, with all my heart.

Beyond that, who I am is a man who places great importance on family and also on relationships with other people. Who I am is a patriot who loves his country and fears for its future.

Who I am is who I am, not what I do.

Have you given thought to these two questions? How would you answer them? How would your family and friends answer them for you?

Have a New Testament passage or concept you’d like to see discussed here? Maybe something you’ve never quite understood. I’d love to hear from you about that, too. I’ll try my best to explain it.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx@gmail.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, David N. Walker author, Godly Wisdom, inspiration, What am I, Who am I

Miscellaneous Mondays

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Slight alteration in blogs starting this week: switching Monday’s and Wednesday’s blogs. On Miscellaneous Mondays, we’ll talk about whatever happens to pop into my head—or any suggestion you may have made for a topic. Worshipful Wednesdays will be posts devoted to Christian themes. Forensic Fridays will delve into examining this strange language we speak and write. Now, on to today’s subject.

You remember Anabel? The waitress at my favorite breakfast spot whose travails I’ve chronicled several times as she worked through the waiting and red tape trying to get her husband admitted to the United States as a legal immigrant?

One day last week I walked into the restaurant, and she ran over to me with a huge smile on her face. He was here! She finally had her family back together, and her kids had a father back home.

As a conscientious, law-abiding and patriotic American, I do want to see our laws properly enforced. I don’t think it’s right for people to cross our borders illegally and use the largesse of our system to support them in a style they’d never have back home. But the case of Anabel’s husband doesn’t exactly fit that mold.

He was brought across the border as a child and had nothing to do with either the decision to come or the method of doing so. He was, in every sense, an innocent victim of decisions made for him by others.

Nor was he rounded up and deported because of participating in some crime or I.C.E. sweep. Recognizing how wrong it was to be here illegally, he turned himself in and was sent back to Mexico voluntarily.

Surely our immigration laws and regulations should see a man in his position as a different case from those who keep sneaking across the border of their own volition in an attempt to take advantage of our standard of living. You’d think so, but apparently they don’t.

This man had to remain in Mexico for nineteen months—separated from the wife and children he loves—to fit some arbitrary standard and wait for interminably slow progress to be made working through all the red tape involved in getting back here legally. For nineteen months, Anabel retired to a cold, lonely bed every night. For all those nineteen months his kids had to get along without a father—a father who loved them very much.

The wheels turn slowly, but they do turn. He is now back home, reunited with the family he loves and missed so much. Now he has to watch his wife continue to support the family while he waits for the Social Security card that will let him work and the driver’s license that will let him drive to work.

Through all this, Anabel has never wavered. Neither her faith in God nor her steadfast insistence on doing things legally has waned. Her battle is not over and won’t be until these last bits of red tape are dealt with and he is able to support his family as he wants so badly to do, but HE’S HOME. This is what my friend has been waiting for all this time.

Have you ever had to go through an extended period of time separated from your spouse? Your children? Let us know how you handled it.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx@gmail.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Miscellaneous Tagged: Advice, David N. Walker author, immigration, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Personal development, Self-help

Hang Today–What Yesterday?

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

On Forensic Fridays, we dissect the English language to see what it’s made of and how to use it properly.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the verb to hang. This will be a short post, because there’s not much to say about it, but what little there is can be very important.

The problem with this little verb is that it has two different conjugations. The more familiar conjugation would be hang, hung, hung for the present, past and past participle, respectively. However, it can also be hang, hanged and hanged, for the respective tenses.

What gives here? Are these two conjugations interchangeable? Do both carry the same meaning.

In a way, the do both carry the same meaning. Both mean to suspend, but they are not interchangeable.

The word hanged for the past and past participle is specifically used to describe using a rope to execute someone or to commit suicide. The cattle rustler was hanged for his crimes. It would be improper to say he was hung for his crimes. To the best of my knowledge, that is the only proper usage of hanged.

For all other purposes, we use hung for the past and past participle of this verb. The picture hung on the living room wall—we hung the new lamp in the corner—he hung up the phone.

Just remember to use hanged when referring to something a hangman did, and otherwise use hung.

What grammatical misuse bothers you? What particular area of grammar would you like help with? I’d love to hear and help.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Grammar Tagged: David N. Walker author, Editing tips, Grammar and usage, Grammar rules, grammar tips, writing tips

Television Reruns

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Dish network brings me hundreds of stations to choose from. I’m sure Direct TV and the cable companies offer a similar breadth of options.

Out of all those stations, you’d think reruns of practically every program ever made could be found. Do the execs of all the networks and syndications really think everyone is under thirty? Or under forty? Don’t they realize that us old geezers make up the fastest growing demographic group in our country as people continue to live longer and longer?

Apparently a lot of people enjoy watching other people stranded on desert islands and forced to eat raw alligators or some such things. A lot of others like to watch every new show that comes out—until another newer show comes out.

Okay, but does that mean we seniors can’t enjoy reruns of our favorite shows. Let me give you a few examples.

Don Johnson and Cheech Marin got together for a fantastic police drama that ran for six years or so starting in 1996, called Nash Bridges. How many police shows have you seen with headquarters on an immobilized ferry? And what two stars have ever played off each other better than Johnson and Marin as Nash and Joe? I’d love to have reruns of this show stay on TV from now on, but there are none to be found.

Before Nash and Joe, there were Rick and Dee Dee on Hunter. This may be the best cop show ever, and it ran for seven seasons starting in 1984. Stepfanie Kramer’s beauty and the brashness of Fred Dryer’s character, along with their interplay, made this show a blockbuster, but I haven’t been able to find a rerun of it in years.

Too long ago? I don’t think so. You can still find episodes of the original Hawaii Five-O (and why would they try to remake such a great show, BTW?) regularly, and it’s much older than either Hunter or Nash Bridges.

How about something newer? Corner Gas ran for six seasons starting in 2004. It’s only been off for a little over three years, but the reruns are nowhere to be found. This hilarious comedy based in Dog River, Saskatchewan, was one of the funniest shows ever made, and it didn’t have to revert to gutter language or bedroom humor like Two Broke Girls and other modern sit-coms.

What shows do you miss and wish they would rerun? Have you watched those I mentioned? What did you think of them?

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Miscellaneous Tagged: Corner Gas, David N. Walker author, Dish Network, Hawaii Five-O, Hunter, Nash Bridges, Reruns, Two Broke Girls

Thanking God

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Most Christians—and a lot of not-Christians, for that matter—are faithful about thanking God for what He does, but how often do we thank Him for who He is? Do we overlook this in our relationships with Him?

My wife appreciates it when I thank her for doing something, but if I really want to make her feel good, I thank her for being the person she is. It’s a much deeper concept and conveys a more powerful message.

I thank my daughter for doing this or that or not doing something else, but my most basic thought about her is that I’m thankful for who she is. If you stop and think about it, isn’t it more important for your child to be the wonderful and morally upright person he or she is than for him or her to buy you a present or invite you to dinner?

We thank God for our health. We thank Him for our relative prosperity. We may thank Him for a new car or a new house. We thank Him for lots of things, but so what? Does that show any great character or reverence on our part? We’d be ingrates if we weren’t thankful for all these things.

But if we truly want to show appreciation to God, we should thank Him for being the God He is. The unbending justice of His nature. The grace which allows Him to substitute Jesus’s righteousness for our sinfulness. The unchanging nature of His character.

Do we thank God for these traits which make Him the God He is, or do we just thank Him for being our sugar daddy and giving us stuff?

Have a New Testament passage or concept you’d like to see discussed here? Maybe something you’ve never quite understood. I’d love to hear from you about that, too. I’ll try my best to explain it.

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: attributes of God, character of God, Christian, David N. Walker author, Godly Wisdom, inspiration

Changing Rules

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Last week I wrote about the erroneous conjugation of the verb to dive, in which many people use dove for the past tense. I still have not received an answer as to whether or not these same people use diven for the past participle, but I did receive several comments about the fact that dove has been used so commonly that it has been accepted as a correct word for the past tense of to dive.

I grew up in an era when grammar, like manners, had rules, and ignoring the rules of either subject brought correction from parents and teachers alike. Because of that, I tend not to like the those behaviors or word usages that have become acceptable just because they have become so common.

Yes, saying "I dove into the pool" is now generally accepted as correct grammar, so feel free to use it. But don’t expect me to join you. I’m sorry. I can’t make myself, any more than I can make myself split an infinitive, which has also become acceptable just because a lot of people do it.

You may promise to never do something, but I can’t. I must promise never to do whatever it is. Too many years of being hammered by my father and my teachers.

Some others you won’t hear me saying, although they have become generally acceptable, are sunk and shrunk as past tenses. I was taught sink, sank, sunk and shrink, shrank, shrunk, and I can’t get over my background here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a foolish consistency was the hobgoblin of little minds, so I’ll prove that I don’t have a little mind by confessing one with which I flaunt the old rules all the time. I was taught there’s no such word as snuck. The correct past tense of sneak is sneaked. Okay, if I run into any of my old teachers (and they would be REALLY old by now), I’ll say sneaked. But snuck sounds so much more expressive, I think I’ll continue using it. According to dailywritingtips.com this is perfectly acceptable.

So where do we go with all this business of grammar. I intend to continue posting on correct grammatical usage as I was taught back in the frontier days. For normal conversations or for dialogue in your books, feel free to use the modern updates that I consider to be wrong, but for formal writing or public speaking, I still maintain we’d all be better off and communicate more coherently if we follow the tried and true rules.

How do you feel about my calling things incorrect that have come to be accepted in today’s language? What grammatical misuse bothers you? What particular area of grammar would you like help with? I’d love to hear and help.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the "About" tab above.

For more information about his books, click on "Books" above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Grammar Tagged: conjugating verbs, David N. Walker author, grammar of words, grammatical English

Filling the Jar

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

A brief announcement before I get into today’s post. Fancy is now available in paperback at https://www.createspace.com/3981354. Now both of my books are available for Nook or Kindle or in paperback. Click “Books” above and look at each.

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My wife sent me an email with a powerful video that illustrated an important truth about life. I had received it before, but for some reason it didn’t strike me with the same impact it did today. I’m going to add slightly to what the video said, but this is basically how it went.

A philosophy professor stood in front of his class the first day holding a large, empty pickle jar.

Next, he produced a number of golf balls and began putting them into the jar until it would hold no more.

He then asked the class if the jar was full. They all agreed it was.

He reached down and brought up a container of pebbles and began dropping them into the jar. The pebbles worked their way into the empty spaces among the golf balls.

When he could get no more pebbles into the jar, he held it up and asked again if it was full. Again, the class agreed that it was.

Next, he produced a container of sand and began pouring it into the jar. Of course, the sand worked its way into spaces between pebbles.

Once again, he asked the class if the jar was full. This time, they were sure he couldn’t get anything else into the jar.

To everyone’s surprise, he pulled a jar of chocolate milk out of his desk drawer and poured it into the jar. It worked its way through the sand, the pebbles and the golf balls and began filling the jar.

Then he told them this represented their lives. The golf balls represented the most important things in life: one’s relationship with God, one’s spouse, one’s family, one’s friends, and one’s health. Like the golf balls, these must come first in our lives.

The pebbles represent the next most important things that matter, such as your job, your home and your car. These must fill in after the more important things.

The sand is the small stuff. He explained the importance of putting the items in the jar in the right order. If he’d put the pebbles in first, there would have been no room for the golf balls. If he’d put in the sand first, there would have been no room for either the golf balls or the pebbles.

As with his illustration, if we fill our lives with sand or pebbles, we won’t have room left for the golf balls. The most important things in our lives will be overlooked in our pursuit of less important things.

When he finished his explanation, one student raised his hand and asked what the significance of the chocolate milk was. A huge grin crept over the professor’s face as he answered.

“No matter how busy you are, there’s always room for chocolate.” From what I see on Twitter profiles, I think most of my writer friends would agree with this last statement.

How about your life? Do you fill it with golf balls first, or do you let the pebbles and the sand get in the way?

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Illustrations courtesy of morguefile.com.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Miscellaneous Tagged: David N. Walker author, life skills, priorities, priority in life

Acts of Kindness

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Some months ago, when I was visiting my daughter, son-in-law and grandsons, we all went out to supper together. As Gary was about to pray, he glanced up and saw our waitress approaching.

After she stated her business—I don’t remember what she said—Gary told her we were about to pray and asked her if there was anything we could pray about for her. I’d never heard that done in a restaurant before, but I thought it was a neat idea.

So did she, apparently, because she immediately made a prayer request. Gary prayed for her, and we went on about the serious business of eating.

The more I thought about this, the better I liked the idea. I don’t do this every time I eat in a restaurant, but I have done it numerous times since then. I have yet to find a waitress who didn’t appreciate it.

One time when a buddy and I did this in the place where we meet for breakfast, a couple of teenage girls in the next booth noticed. As they got up to leave, one of them mentioned how nice she thought that was. It turned out they were on their way to some youth retreat, and they let us pray for them and their group.

Another time at the same place, our waitress asked us to pray for healing for her ribs. She said they had been extremely painful for several days and she was having trouble standing up straight. We prayed for her and put it out of our minds, but the next time she saw me, she reminded me of that prayer and told me her pain left completely before the day was over.

One of my favorite themes is that you never know what effect a word or act of kindness may have on the life of another. God chooses to work through human vessels, and He can use the smallest effort on our part to accomplish great things in the lives of other. We need to keep ourselves always aware of opportunities to touch others in a positive way.

What small things have you done, or had done for you, that had large beneficial effects?

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: acts of kindness, Author, Blog, Christian, David N. Walker, David N. Walker author, David N. Walker’s blog, intercession, random acts of kindness

Using the Correct Word

We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

Today is the fourth post in the series on misused word pairs. These are words which are frequently substituted for each other even though they don’t have the same meaning.

Today’s word is not part of a pair in the same sense as those discussed in the earlier posts. Today’s word is a misconjugation of a verb.

You remember conjugating verbs sometime back in school? Present tense, past tense, past participle, and so forth? Oh, you were asleep that day? Pity.

Anyhow, the use of the proper tense of the verb tells your reader or listener when the action or state of being you are trying to convey took place. Is it taking place right now (present tense)? Did it take place yesterday or at some other specific time in the past (past tense)? Or has it taken place numerous times in the past (past participle)?

Most of us can conjugate most verbs without any trouble, but there’s one verb in particular that seems to baffle many of us. For some reason, we have trouble conjugating the verb to dive. Since dive rhymes with drive, we want to make its past tense rhyme with drove.

Since we drive today and drove yesterday, we want to say we dive today and dove yesterday. If that were so, I supposed we should say we have diven many times in the past. Wouldn’t that make sense? Yet, no one ever says that. We know diven is not correct. Why don’t we go ahead and learn that dove is not correct either.

The past tense of the verb to dive is dived. So is the past participle. I dive today. I dived yesterday. I have dived many times in the past.

When you use dove for your past tense, spellcheck will approve it, because d-o-v-e does spell a word. Unfortunately, that word describes a game bird. It’s a noun, not a verb.

Let’s try to remember this point. To dive is a fairly common verb, and its past tense is one of the most frequently misused words in the language. Correcting that is a simple matter. Just remember that no one has ever diven. Maybe that will help us all to remember not to dove for a verb. It’s dived.

Let’s all learn this simple rule of word usage so we can write more intelligent and coherent prose.

What grammatical misuse bothers you? What particular area of grammar would you like help with? I’d love to hear and help.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx

Special Announcement: Heaven Sent is now available on Nook. Click “Books” above, then “Heaven Sent” for the link.

Filed under: Grammar Tagged: David N. Walker author, grammar of words, grammatical English