Jun 15 2010
Just Because You Can
I was recently reading a curry restaurant menu that included a typo (‘till’ instead of ‘til or until, I think). Instinctively I wanted to reach for a pencil to mark it or change it. In fact, its mere existence so totally distracted me that I found it hard to make my food selection.
Not that this is a new thing for me. In the past my pedantic nature has seen perfectly good stories and articles, written by other people, discarded purely because I can’t get past typos and inconsistencies. Now, I know my writing isn’t perfect, and I certainly make more than my fair share of mistakes, but there is something about reading words printed on a page that brings out the perfectionist side of me.
It has taken many years to consciously turn off this instinct as far as reading books for fun is concerned. A skill that was motivated after I tried to read a library book that a previous reader had felt compelled to correct with red pen.
I guess what I am trying to say here is, just because we can see a mistake doesn’t mean that we have to correct it. It’s like the old saying, ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.’
