sidewalk editing

brand new sidewalk on my block

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I walking home yesterday, I noticed that they had finally poured the new cement for the sidewalk.
And along with the new cement came the graffiti - the signatures, the hand and foot prints, the initials, the initials of couples who pledge their undying love, and God. Yup, I found God on my way home.

I don't object to this kind of graffiti - actually I don't object to most graffiti - it's this undeniably human impulse that we have been practicing for thousands of years - the insatiable desire to unequivocally state -  I was here, remember me. Essentially, editing your landscape.

The same impulse that drives us to edit our homes, decorating and designing, putting our personal stamp on the place we live, also drives us to edit the world around us - putting our own personal stamp on our neighborhood, our city, our planet. We are very small and the world is very large, and one way to feel more a part of things is put a visible reminder, out there, that we exist, we count.

And that brings me back to God. What's God doing in there? Honestly, if I was to tag a sidewalk my impulse would be to leave my own mark, but I am intrigued that someone else was so strongly driven to leave the mark of God instead. What does it all mean? I have no idea but I like the question that the God mark poses every time I pass that piece of sidewalk. Maybe that was the anonymous God signers attention - to get people to think about God, even for a second. Editing your landscape to bring a moment of spiritual awareness or consideration - that's some strong editorial work.

colour my world?

Last week in editing class we read and talked about the usage of "or" vs. "our" in words and how that is one of the ways we differentiate Canadian spelling vs. American spelling of words.

I had a real life example of this difference.

When I was teaching in Korea I spelled "colour" on the white board, and the Korean middle school students went crazy.
They were really excited because they thought their foreign English teacher had spelled a very simple word incorrectly.
This flurry of excitement turned into a great teachable moment because it gave me the opportunity to explain the different kinds of spelling you can find across the English language world. They were really interested to learn that even in countries that are so close geographically - in their minds American and Canada are basically the same country - there can be such a difference in spelling of such a simple word as color/colour.

What is the lesson for the editor?
It's important to be aware of what your geographical audience expects as standard spellings for common words. When in doubt, edit for your writer's primary audience.

giveaway weekend

Giveaway weekend in Winnipeg is the epitome of editing on a city wide scale. I kind of love going through people's stuff so I took a drive on Saturday to see what was out there.
Oh, before I get to that I should do this:
giveawayweekend.stm
The city of Winnipeg's giveaway site cracked me up.
They advise the public to label the items with "free" stickers so that people won't just walk off with anything they see on the lawn. I understand that people lost lawn mowers, deck chairs, and rumour has it, a cat, on previous weekends. Seriously, I genuinely love my city.
The city goes on to warn about things that should not be given away:
Top of the list? You guessed it - items infested with bed bugs.
That is a handy tip.
OK enough about the City.
I live in Elmwood, so I don't know about other people's experiences. Maybe there were some super fine pockets of giveaway this weekend. But in Elmwood all I could find were a couple of really sorry looking CRT monitors and I don't think people can even give those away. They are going to have to take those sorry things back inside. I don't think you're even allowed to throw those things out. Can this be true? Are you really doomed to have your CRT monitor follow you around for the rest of your life because you can't get rid of the damn thing?
So what's the moral of this editing story?
The city of Winnipeg should do stand-up and editing your life of things you don't need isn't so easy when you can't find anyone to take your stuff.