“You and I must make a pact, we must bring salvation back. Where there is love, I'll be there.” That has to be one of my favourite Jackson 5 songs. The lyrics are sweet, and unlike my daughter who objects to Michael’s “girly” voice, I think he sounds perfectly pure, and it moves me every time. At least, it did until last Saturday.
While I was out driving with the sun shining, windows down, and little Michael singing his heart out, I was almost moved to tears, and then I heard it: a line that jolted me out of my moment and into my next and rather overdue blog entry. The culprit:
“If you should ever find someone new, I know he'd better be good to you. 'Cause if he DOESN’T, I'll be there.”
Doesn’t? Doesn’t what, exactly? As this line played and replayed in my head, I couldn’t grasp why they inserted the wrong word when the right word has exactly the same cadence and actually makes sense:
“If you should ever find someone new, I know he'd better be good to you. 'Cause if he ISN’T, I'll be there.”
I’ll admit, my observation is petty when you look at how much the Jackson 5 actually did get right, but I do believe there’s a lesson in it for us mere mortals. When you’re writing, don’t just make sure your verbs and pronouns agree. Make sure your sentences agree with one another. Spell check may be smart enough to point out a poorly structured sentence, but it’s not smart enough to point out a well-structured sentence that’s out of context.
And now, with my rant behind me, I’m going back for more. Care to join me? Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6bARIaMhCM
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