The Lonely Paren

I have always loved including parenthetical asides in my writing (although I read that the overuse of parentheses is a sign of bad writing) and I take great pleasure (probably too much!) in the layering of parentheses. Before there was “Inception”, I was placing a parenthetical remark within a parenthetical mark (there is just something beautiful about the way it works when done right [though it has to be done spontaneously- any effort to purposefully layer parenthetical marks is pretty obvious {like this one!} and so it doesn't happen very often]).
Why, after months of not writing anything (almost exactly a year!!) do I decide to pontificate on the parenthesis? Well, I have several blogging friends who are very inspiring at what they do (in fact, I believe the love of blogging was one of the things which brought them together as friends), so I have been meaning to dust off the blog and jump in as well. Catching up on blogs tonight gave me that motivation, and then one of my friends posted a link to a site titled “Parenthesized”. Odd name, but somehow that was enough to get the gears turning in my head. I'm pretty happy with where this somewhat unorthodox train of thought took me (“You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away...”), so I thought I would share tonight.
First, my Wiki-research: Apparently “parens” is only an informal shortening of parentheses (the plural of parenthesis- referring to just one). I'd always though a paren was the official term for it. “Humph” I thought to myself (those are often the precursors to my deepest and most profound thoughts- a simple “humph”), “you learn something new every day”. But that was just the start, the metaphorical train had barely left the station (“You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't know for sure”).
What if I was a paren? My rogue mind (I typed rouge at first and had to stare at it for a good 5 seconds before deciding that “rogue” was what I wanted) went straight to relationships, and I found that I really liked the analogy that came from that. What if I was a paren? Parentheses are supposed to come in pairs. It would drive me crazy if someone were to open a parenthetical statement and never close it (can you image the nerve of such an individual!?


I'm sorry. I had to do that just once to make the point. “It is not good that the man should be alone” sounds to me pretty much like the same philosophy. That's what it often feels like to me, that I'm opening a parenthetical aside, and I'm going to need someone to complete it for me. This analogy really seems to fit for me because I feel like that's the role I fit best in: Just as the parenthetical information is generally not the main focus of the sentence, I feel at home working behind the scenes for most endeavors seeking to clear things up and make sure that everything is working well.
Well, that certainly makes it sound easy right? All I've got to do is slap a paren on the other end, and things are good! The problem is that there are all sorts of different endings, and while the message would get across if I were to mix and match (the human mind is great at filling in what it needs to>, it just doesn't fit quite right. So you try again (and again] (“But it doesn't matter. Now tell me why!”) “Well,” I thought to myself, “That was quite a fun ride this evening. I do love traveling by train.” But I wasn't done yet (Long car drives home from Sunday dinners at my parents' place give me plenty of time to think)! I had the thought then “So, what good is a lonely paren?” I mean, if a paren isn't crafting that witty, powerful parenthesis, what is it doing?

:)

That's what.
I may be a lonely paren, but until that parenthesis comes around helping me finish the mess I've started, I'm going to put my curve of a smile to good use. There's a lot of good that one smile can do, as I've been reminded of as of late. By golly, I'm going to smile.
One last ponderifaction, and I'm done (if you've read all this, bravo! I've really been on a ramble tonight). There is only one slight difference between a smile and a frown when you're making an emoticon. Though there are many different ways to do both, :) and ): seem to work well for me. “Yeah... what's the big deal with that?” you ask. Well, when you're a lonely paren, what's the difference between a smile and a frown? It's all about where you've got your eyes. You keep your eyes up, focused on the goal, and the curve of your lonely paren becomes that powerful smile. Let your eyes drop down, get discouraged, and suddenly, you're an emaciated frown. I've chosen to set my sights on my Savior, Jesus Christ, and that keeps my head up and my smile sincere.

Putting it together:
“You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away.
You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't know for sure.
But it doesn't matter. Now tell me why!”

For me, the lonely paren, this rambling post is my answer why.