Summer’s Friday
Arthur Brash | August 29, 2008 | 17:55Another day slips into the past, the list of tasks assigned to it not so. Breakfast, trip to the doctors, pharmacy, store, then another, and another. The whole town is stocking up on supplies, an event akin to those that precede a powerful storm.
It’s nearly September and the last long weekend of the summer. There are those that leave the city for the lakes and need things for the stay, and those that prepare for the coming school year. Across the stores, the combination plays itself out on epic proportions.
An ice cream truck broke down in the street below, or so it seems. The music box sound which the vehicle produces can sound pleasant, but only as long as it’s getting closer or further away. We’re multiple runs into the same tune at volume equal those before, and there still is no sign of it going away.
Before I take another trip across town to celebrate another special birthday, I wanted to leave a quick mark here to keep my writing habit going. One thing I find frustrating about journal like entries is the number of times the English language forces one to use the word “I”. You may have noticed my loathing for I, with recent entries taking a journey through words, phrases and sentence structures that don’t require the “I-columns” for support. Until the time when all my journal like entries can be presented in a style less dependent on I, I suspect I shan’t write many of this type. (There you have it again – two more in just half a sentence! How absurd!)
Happy Birthday, Larissa!
How lovely. Many thanks for the well-wishes, and the warm memories. :)
And, as for the “I” dilemma… well, since the persona known as “I” plays a, shall we say, starring role in a personal diary or journal, it’s not so surprising that it would come up so frequently, is it? Relying on it too much gets boring; but then, contorting oneself into linguistic yoga positions just to avoid it at all costs can be a bit too much in the other direction… :)
I guess I am referring to the one Slovak language I know well, and the few I sort of understand… where “I” is mixed in with all the verbs. Each verb has seven forms (AFAIK) and the verb “betrays the narrator.” It is a safe assumption that when omitting the specification of the person, it’s in first person voice, but English does not really permit that. “Went to the store” should be complete enough, yet in many languages including Eng, it needs to be preceded by “I” in most instances. But now I sound like a ranting old fool that’s fighting the current…