Light My Fire
Copyright 2005 by Suzy Wurtz
Do fingernails scratched on a blackboard
make you want to scream? It can be a small scratch on the blackboard or a big,
long, across-the-entire-front-of-the-room-scratch. In whatever degree, it’s
irritating.
Improper word usage irritates me like fingernails on a
blackboard. If you make an honest mistake, though, that’s human nature. I had a
friend who once told me that she went to a wedding at a “Greek Oxydol Church,”
but I knew that she meant to say “Greek Orthodox Church.” That amused me, not
irritated me.
In my opinion, if I break a grammar or spelling rule to make
a point or to be clever, that’s creative license. But if I break the grammar or
spelling rule because I’m ignorant of it, I wish someone would be gracious
enough to correct me so I don’t continue in ignorance. In our evolving
language, however, a word misused sometimes becomes standard. A good example of
this is the adverb “hopefully,” which means “in a hopeful manner.” It does not
mean, “I hope.” To say, “Hopefully, he’ll be here soon,” explains that when he
gets here soon, he will be filled with hope. Can you picture the guy who’s
filled with hope? And why is he hopeful? But that isn’t what you meant. What
you meant to say is “I hope he’ll be here soon.”
I’ve lost the “hopefully” battle, by the way. It’s too late
to save the majority of the population, though I still try to use it correctly.
I praise people who know the difference, but the country in general has embraced
the substandard usage as standard.
I can put up with some rule changes, but there is one battle
I’m ready to fight. At our house, the newspaper coverage and ads from the
American Cancer Society Relay For Life have been our household amusement for a
few years. At first we blamed it on proofreading errors and had a good laugh.
Then we noticed the blunder more frequently in articles about the event in
various cities.
Make no mistake; I think the overnight Relay For Life rallies
are wonderful events. I donate to them regularly. But do they really set fire
to people? A recent ad in a daily newspaper said, in part, “ A very special
luminary lighting ceremony is planned at dusk on Friday…Your $10.00 will place a
luminary along the pathway to memorialize or honor someone you love.”
In my life, I have friends who have died from cancer, and I
wish to honor them. But not by lighting a luminary. A luminary is a person of
prominence, of fame. Someone like the mayor of your city, a guest speaker, Tom
Cruise, the pope, or Sandra Day O’Connor. That’s a luminary. A luminaria
is a lantern, and comes from a Mexican Christmas tradition. It is a candle set
in sand inside a paper bag.
I am 99.99% certain that they want my ten dollars to light
the luminaria not the luminary. In their defense, the event’s schedule in this
advertisement did correctly list the “luminaria service,” which we know is the
lighting of candles. These words are similar and both refer to light. I have
seen them interchanged so many times over recent years, though, that it’s not
longer humorous to me.
So for those of you who don’t have a summer project yet, I
invite you to carry this torch with me. Tell your children and your friends the
difference between a luminaria and a luminary. Correct those solicitation
letters for donations when you get them. Only through this grass roots movement
can we keep prominent citizens from becoming candles.
And I will wait hopefully for results.
For more information about the Relay for
Life, visit the American Cancer Society Website at
www.cancer.org.
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