Now I am going to admit something and this is going to make me sound very, stupid for many reasons, which I will list without further ado. 1. I graduated from a college in Europe with a double major, in World History and ENGLISH LITERATURE. 2. I have two college degrees and the second one was in COMMUNICATIONS. 3. I had pretty good grades in English. 4. I am an avid reader and I have read hundreds of books. I am not sure how many books that I have read in my life except to say that for many years I read 3 to 4 books (or more?) a week, until the birth of my first son when my constant love of reading took a big hit. 5. I was one of the very few kids on earth who loved to diagram sentences. 6. I am over 60 but, so far, I think my brain is still functioning, hopefully, about on the same level for the last few years. I am not saying that my mind isn’t going to turn to mush in the next year or two but so far so good.
This is my embarrassing statement. A few days ago I couldn’t remember the definition of a preposition and then when I read the definition it really didn’t make any sense to me. I knew the general meaning and many words that are used as prepositions such as “inside, up, besides, below, above, across.” I had to look up the definition to explain it to another person. Here is the definition that Siri recited to me when I asked her the definition of a Preposition. (my phone tells me almost everything that I need to know on a need to know basis.)
This is according to Siri,
[A word governing and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in “the man on the platform,” “she arrived after dinner”]
What a preposition does is explain the relationship between two things like a noun and a verb. It connects the noun with the verb. It shows us how two things are related. It hooks things together. Now, the whole preposition thing gets very confusing unless you are shown some examples. Sometimes a word can be a preposition and sometimes it’s not a preposition such as, “The dog ran down the street.” and, “Put that dog down!” Confusing right? I had a lot of explaining to do and I had a lot of reading to do to be able to explain the in’s and out’s of the confusing, preposition.
Of course, if you know me or if you have been reading my blog lately you might realize that this all had more of a meaning to me than just proper English and proper grammar. Now, what some of us need is a preposition for our lives to explain the relations we have to our lives and to our friends and to our past and to our future. How does it connect?
What I need is a Preposition working for me in my life. I am going to call him Bill. So, Bill, show me how to connect with that verb. How I’m going to pay Bill and is anyone guess? I am not in a position to throw money around lately, especially to a Preposition.
Bill, explain to me what my connection is to my, “Was-band” How exactly did he end up (after separating 17 years ago) sleeping on the couch in my living room? Explain that connection to me, Bill. I know, I know, he is the father of my two sons and he is still my “Was-band” and I am still way, too nice to everyone. Got it.
While you are at it Bill, show me how I am going to connect to the next phase of my life heading into my 70’s. Yes, I’ll be in my 70’s in just two years, six weeks and five days. So Bill, how am I going to “hook up” to a new job at 67 going on 68 that will pay for myself, two other people and three pets? Better yet, Bill, tell me how am I going to connect or hook up with any human when I am this old and working and worrying and not sleeping enough and my “Was-band” is sleeping on my couch?
It is interesting that actually there are a lot of women over 60 in this same position, Bill. It might be that we spent so much time thinking of everyone else and doing for everyone else and keeping everyone else alive, that we never noticed that time was going past us very fast. We never stopped long enough, to imagine where we were going to end up, in our 60’s.
Well, Bill, the good news is, that I am a pretty strong person and I am still working and still trying to keep it all together and I am not giving up just yet. I still like writing my blog and I am still considering looking for that Preposition that shows how that noun connects to the verb. If you know one and he is interested, I am relatively available. Please give him my number. I have heard that Prepositions are good at combining with a noun or a pronoun. They aren’t flashy and they can make a mean Prepositional phrase. At least, that’s what Siri told me.
Until Next Week…
Is There Sex After 60? (Navigating Single Life After 60) 