There was no time when everyone spoke flawless English and people punctuated “properly.” It’s important to come to grips with this historical fact, because it influences how we act in the present: after we nail down some basic punctuation history here through the story of the semicolon, I’ll show that hanging on to the old story about grammar—the mythical story—limits our relationship with language. It keeps us from seeing, describing, and creating beauty in language that rules can’t comprehend.
