They tell me I don\u2019t use punctuation, that I don\u2019t know how to use it, that I\u2019m not capable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I remember very well when, in elementary school, teacher Stefania in that classroom with wooden and glass windows embracing the pines and mulberry trees on the hill in the middle of the city explained to me that, for example, the comma is used to give a pause that isn\u2019t too long, like taking a breath; it marks time, it doesn\u2019t stop it completely, it alternates it like the sand dunes you ride over on a bicycle, going up and then down and then up again as you head straight toward the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s the semicolon. I\u2019ve always really liked the semicolon: it\u2019s more than a comma but a bit less than a period, that perfect middle ground, like a midday snack of bread and prosciutto not quite an \u2018amatriciana\u2019, but not just a cookie dipped in coffee either. It\u2019s still, like good wine, yet it moves, like the dancer’s leg that gives a circle to her compass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, if you\u2019re good, you get to use the period now that is strong, sharp, decisive. There\u2019s no turning back. It settles down, and you step off at the next stop after the \u2018ding\u2019; you drop down a line or two depending on how loudly that \u201cwe\u2019ve arrived, miss\u201d echoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So yes, I understood teacher Stefania; the theory seems clear to me. But well, if I decide to take a breath here, or here, that\u2019s my business, isn\u2019t it? I should be free to breathe a lot, a little, in bursts, or even to tell my whole story all in one go without ever breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yeah, but then the meaning changes, the intention shifts, people can\u2019t understand what you meant. As if that intention were somehow separate from the relationship itself as if you had to explain to little girls how and whether to use a comma when the boys won\u2019t let them play football because it\u2019s a \u201cboys\u2019 game,\u201d and explain to the boys how to use a period when the girls put an X in the \u201cno\u201d box in answer to \u201cDo you want to be my girlfriend?\u201d Or the other way around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find myself thinking that those periods, ellipses, question marks, and exclamation points are things you learn between one lesson and the next, or in the afternoons when, at the school gate, someone says \u201cwant to come study at my place?\u201d, or on Saturdays and Sundays at the park, at the beach, in the snow, or in the courtyard below your house, or in a \u201ccome on up, dinner\u2019s ready, I made meatballs \u2014 your favorite.\u201d I mean, in relationships that are beautiful authentic caring clean good, rich \u2014 like meatballs, which everyone knows turn out tastier the more love you put into them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, you know when people say \u201care you pretending or is that just who you are?\u201d Well, I think punctuation \u2018is\u2019, it isn\u2019t something you \u2018do\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think the most beautiful things don\u2019t have any punctuation at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like making love, painting a picture, breathing in lavender, walking through the woods with the leaves that fall from up there to down here, and you feel they\u2019re exactly where they need to be to let you brush against the clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s impossible to make love with a period or a semicolon, to breathe lavender with a question mark, or to paint in parentheses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe we invented punctuation so we could understand, explain, regulate, restrain out of fear that otherwise we might get lost, might forget to breathe at the right moment, might fall off the bicycle while coming down the dune, might not get off at the correct stop, and end up so far away we could no longer see the edges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think punctuation is for those who have lost the music, because I once saw two pianists turn each other\u2019s sheet music pages and play with their eyes closed, with such wonder, without speaking, without touching, without looking moving perfectly in unison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first breath gives no warning. It simply appears. A bit like the first \u201cI\u2019ll get off here\u201d or the first \u201cI love you\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if you look closely, I have used a few commas. But anyway the rest, you can put them in yourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Susanna Lucatello<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They tell me I don\u2019t use punctuation, that I don\u2019t know how to use it, that I\u2019m not capable. But I remember very well when, in elementary school, teacher Stefania in that classroom with wooden and glass windows embracing the pines and mulberry trees on the hill in the middle of the city explained to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":7349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n