If We All Use Grammarly??

I am old enough to remember when spell check came into being and how revolutionary it seemed at the time. Now we have Grammarly sweeping into our lives making suggestions about everything we type on our computers and phones. It seems pretty amazing that AI is that smart, but what if it isn’t that smart? It got me thinking about the lowest common denominator of grammar. Is that how we want to communicate?

Grammarly and its AI most assuredly have changed how any person has communicated with others. It captures most spelling and grammar errors. But it also makes suggestions in sentence structure, tone, and word choices. I am not so sure that I am onboard with all that. I think that there is a lot we can lose. It can dumb down our writing to some Grammarly-determined level we should write at.

One of the bad things about Grammarly is that it scores you and implies you are wrong. You may be incorrect, but you may just as easily be correct in your English usage. I think we are all conditioned to want a perfect score so we accept the Grammarly corrections because “no errors” feels good. So many times we just whip through our document making all the suggested corrections by Grammarly. But what if “no errors” only means you accepted what they said? What if what you wrote was technically correct, just not the most common English usage?

My largest fear is that Grammarly will eliminate regional vernaculars of the English language. Having lived all over the US I find regional vernaculars full of local history. How it came to be and how the locals use it is part of their story. It is more than if you drink soda, pop, or Coke when ordering a soft drink. I don’t favor using local slang all the time. Sometimes you mean and you want to use y’all or yous guys. Then you should not any AI engine shame you out of it. Grammarly does exceptionally poorly at recognizing regional slang because it often uses words in a manner that might not follow the standard grammar or spelling rules. It insists you need to remove this type of slang, when it is exactly what you want to say. It is easier to allow the autocorrect to stay in place than retype what you really meant.

Another of the things I find Grammarly often gets wrong in complex sentences is the subject-verb agreement. No, I am not an English teacher or even someone who believes I am an English language nerd. I did have an exceptional English teacher in the 8th grade, and a good English teacher when I took a refresher in my 40’s when I wanted to do some creative writing. I do keep my Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference handy when I am doing creative writing. If Grammarly disagrees with a sentence, and I am fairly sure I am right I look it up. If it is technically correct, I keep it. As a result of my bullheadedness Grammarly scores me quite poorly in some areas while I am exceptional in others. It tells me that I am more accurate than only 29% of the users, but that I use 81% more unique words. That seems an oxymoron to me. I suspect that this is a result of choosing to stay with what I type when it is not wrong, but may not fit into the structured AI mold of Grammarly. I don’t want to dumb down, homogenize my English, hide my regional dialect, or streamline my writing if the detailed picture I want to paint takes all those words in just that fashion to convey my message.

I am sure that this rant has resulted in some of you thinking I need to get a life. Others of you may be cheering me on because you have faced this same hurdle. I just want each of you to think the next time any AI grammar tool tells you what to say, “Is what I wrote what I want to say?” If so let it ride. Be the smart person you are and teach the AI engines of the world a thing or two.

P.S. In case you wonder I ignored Grammerly five times in this post: three spelling errors that the Merriam-Webster dictionary confirms are correct first-choice spellings, one subject-verb agreement that is correct, and a comma placement that is correct.

Unexpected Success Story

This year as we learn so much about gardening in North Carolina, we have brought home many plants from the local nursery centers that have been on clearance. Some plant materials I thought would be a good match for my yard have been a bomb and others have been unexpected pleasant surprises. One of those things that fell into the positive experience column was dahlias. We found a display of bags of assorted dahlia roots/tubers in woodshavings, past the optimum planting time. Though the planting time frame was not out of bounds, we were close to the tail end of when you should be planting them. With the possibility of something new to grow that would be so striking and the fact it was 50% off, well it quickly called my name and found its way into the basket to come home with me. Half of them did not come up but one of them is like hitting a jackpot. It is absolutely beautiful and brings a smile to my face every time I look out and see a bloom.

I have no idea what cultivar I have. I am now emboldened to pay full price and get more dahlias next year. I am reading up about how this one might winter over in my location. I have a mission to learn about what I am doing. I am full of smiles and no matter what I paid for this, it was well worth it.

Flower Flashback – Zennias

My grandparents had a large garden that consumed over half of their backyard when I was a child. My grandma grew flowers in the garden nearest the house, and grandpa grew things we would eat in the rest of the garden. In those rows, grandma was responsible for, you would find an assortment of flowers we now refer to as old-fashion and cottage-garden varieties. Zennias stick in my mind because there were so many different colors and shapes in her garden. Grandma would cut flowers in her garden and bring them into the house. Those zennias created a riot of color in that kitchen bouquet I remember so well.

I noticed that one of my neighbors had zennias by her post box. It immediately took me back to grandma’s garden. I was immediately fascinated by them and the possibility of having the same flower somewhere in my yard. I talked to my neighbor and found out that as beautiful as they were, the zennias had been a bit of a challenge. She planted them early from seed, but they did not come in right away as she planned. Later in the season, when she had given up on the zennias and picked up some flowers at the local Lowe’s to fill in the blank spot, the zennias came in thick and furious.

As we go to the close of the summer and this year’s growing season for flowers. I will keep this flower and the lesson from my neighbor in my mind.

No Matter Where You Are

No matter where you are a full moon is a full moon. It is the same moon seen around the world. It is something that your friends and family will see the same moon no matter how far away.

No matter where you are the full moon will look different when you look up to the skies. Even a few steps can change how it looks. The materials in the sky will change the color you see. The horizon will change how it appears.

No matter where you are it can be magical. City, suburb, or country it can be a magical sight. Allow yourself to enjoy it.

RangerSir and Zip on a late-night walk looking up at the full moon as it comes up over the horizon.

Learning to Garden Again

It has been just over two years since we moved to North Carolina. I am slowly learning to garden again. It is a bit of a learning curve and a circuitous journey that is for sure. That being said I am enjoying it and the memories working in a lawn and garden is prompting.

We had spent the previous 20 years living in Southwestern Montana. It was what is referred to as a high cold desert. This means the annual precipitation we received was less than 13 inches. Our home was located in growing zone 3B. Not much grows in a place when it is normal to get a few days of at least -30 degrees every winter and the average high in July was only 79 degrees. Honestly, it could snow any time. Once in the 20 years we had fluries on the 4th of July.

With that set up, I tried some plants but was mostly unsuccessful. I had a friend who worked for Montana State Univeristy in Land Resources and Environmental Science, who once heard me as I malgined all my failed plantings. She said to me “Look around and what do you see, what makes you think you are going to be successful with something else.” She was so right after years of trying to grow trees and flowers that I had in other places we had lived I gave up that notion. I focused on growing the best bunchgrass and sage piece of property around. I focused on a natural diversity and avoiding invasive non-native plants, and ended up with amazing wildflowers, a great collection of wildlife, and pastureland that was easier to maintain. I still wanted flowers and pansies were my most successful garden flower. I think it was because they liked cool weather and seemed to flourish next to the house.

Suddenly I find myself in USDA Hardiness Zone 8a. This is culture shock. I no longer measure rain in the hundredths. The annual average is 46 inches, well above the national average. The frost dates are so far apart the growing season is over 200 days here! You instead have to worry about “will a plant tolerate the heat?” or “does this plant need a winter/prolong cold period?”

In the old days I had tons of books about plants and hardiness zones, that I used to pour over. They did not make the last move. Today I have the internet. It is a challenge because books and magazines were at least vetted for the validity of their data. On the other hand print material was slow to change or expensive to update, so the latest and greatest info wasn’t necessarily available. The internet is an amazing place for information on gardening and plants, but unfortunately like so much of the information out there on the internet, it is a point of view or urban legend. Unlike politics I don’t think this information is meant to be malicious, but it needs to read understanding that a person is sharing what they have experienced in their microcosm. The flipside is that you can get the latest news about plants, and find someone who has a problem that appears exactly like the one you are fighting. So the internet is good too.

After waiting a year for the builder to get the final post moving house things completed we are now working hard on creating a new piece of paradise here in North Carolina. It will never have the vistas or come close to Big Sky, but it is home it is time to start making it feel like home.

What If There Were a Few Fairy Godfathers?

When I say fairy godmother, I immediately conjure up the image of Glinda, the good witch from the “Wizard of Oz.” I don’t know why. Maybe it is because she is the only good witch I have ever seen besides the cartoon character friend of Casper, Wendy. Glinda looks mystical and like she should have lots of powers with that sparkling crown and big magical wand. Which she apparently does have, but depending on your point of view she may not be so altruistic in her use of her magical powers(Check out this blog post for a very different POV on Glinda.)

The other day, I was working on a mixed media project, which in the end turned out to be a card. The day I created this mixed media base, it was a sort of freestyle event. I was not aiming for anything but instead, I was layering and working my way through scraps and ephemera to see what would happen. I ended up with a Fairy Godman. I really liked how he turned out. He was fun and whimsical.

This project got me thinking why is it we make wishes to godmothers, but not fairy godfathers? I know that there are Godfathers, but I don’t think they are of the fairy wish-granting type. Why were the fairies who granted wishes female generally and not men?

If you think about it men have generally been equated with power in our society. Up until these last few generations, men were the primary economic providers for many families and the ones most likely to have the money to grant wishes. Even today, men wield the most power, look at who runs and controls most businesses and politics. If someone was going to make things happen odds are it is a man.

Wishes are not things you just go out and buy, work to achieve, or otherwise make it happen. If wishes are defined as things that are a bit of a stretch, possibly seeming impossible, then the use of fairies seems a likely person to turn to for help with your wishes. Is this image of a fairy godmother because women have been portrayed and largely served the nurturing role in society? Are women the people who made us believe in the possibilities and encourage us in moments when we need it most? Have women had to historically work around barriers to make things happen? Having seen women in all these roles did that cause us to imagine a fairy godmother could help us with things that seem impossible?

It is a lot of strange reflections all based on what came out of an afternoon with some scraps of paper.

Mental Illness – my thoughts

After what happened in Uvalde, I was listening to a Senate committee hearing about possible changes in gun management in this country. I was angered by many things I heard but one I repeatedly heard was we need more mental health care. If they had had mental health care this would not have happened. What I heard in my mind over and over is that people who have mental health issues are one step away from being a criminal. The senators I heard speak have clearly shown the world they know nothing about mental health.

First and foremost I am not a mental health professional. I am a person who survived things that I would not wish on my worst enemy. I have sought and received mental health help. I had a very successful career and am blessed with a marriage of 42 years. Most of the time I have the skills I need to function well in the world. Occasionally, I am thrown seriously off. When this happens, I suddenly find that my skills for managing my anxiety aren’t working. Once in a while, I need what RangerSir calls a tuneup. It is then I go back and seek some professional help to help me get the boxes in my mind back in order so anxiety does not take over. I suspect that most of the people I have known and worked with had no idea of my struggles. I never shared this because of the stigma of mental illness. At no time did I become a criminal.

Mental health issues have a wide spectrum of causes, from situational, to chemical or how a person’s biology is wired. Every time we have a mass shooting I hear the statement we need more mental health access. Like mental illness and it alone if treated would have prevented the killings. This is a very narrow and singular view of the world. Nothing is that simple.

We need to develop a more robust system to treat mental health conditions regardless of a mass killing. We need access to treatment when we cannot afford to pay or our insurance leaves so much copay behind that we need to choose between housing, food, or health care. We need more trained mental health providers. We need affordable pharmaceutical options. This is an everyday struggle for millions. We need to talk about this daily until it is fixed not just each time there is a mass killing.

There are millions and millions of people in this country with little to no access to mental health care and support that somehow figure out how to manage their mental health situations and none of them would even consider shooting up a school or being harmful to others. There are people who live productive amazing lives every day and go home at night and pull out all their coping mechanisms to do it again tomorrow. No one knows of their struggles. There are people who live lives, most of us would never choose, living on the streets and under bridges. They do this because they often don’t have access to the short supply of mental health providers or the medications they need. Yet as destitute as their lives appear to us on the outside, they are managing their mental health somehow. Maybe it isn’t managed well, but it is managed on some level. There are an untold number of people functioning somewhere between these two extremes with mental health issues. We never know about it because there is such a terrible stigma associated with mental health. It is reinforced every time another mass shooting occurs and access is once again connected to a horrific crime.

It seems like those people with the power to help people get access to the services they need, always tie mental health to mass killings. Mass killers are given a mental illness diagnosis from an armchair by members of Congress. This connection continues to stigmatize mental health. It takes it from an illness to a criminal element. It is an insult to the millions of people who have mental health conditions.

Lack of mental health care access is criminal, but lack of mental health care does not make us criminals.