Independent's Day

“We hold these truths to be self-evidence.”

When I teach creative writing, I always trust the authority of the author. So, if she makes a mistake--a typo, a misspelled word, a grammar error--I take it as intentional. Since it is creative writing, I assume the writer knows what she is doing when she decides to be, well, creative. Now, I do teach creative writing in college to new writers who may or may not know how creative they are, but my role is not to decide that for them; my role is to see how they are using, manipulating, and changing language to create meanings and insights that have not been seen before.

Misspellings and missed punctuation happen less in the era (which I just mistyped as “ear”) of autocorrect and grammar check, but they do happen. Sometimes one catches them (what is the connection between era and ear?) and sometimes, one doesn't.

Today is the 4th of July--Independence Day. Or, if you own the salon where I got my vacation mani-pedi last week, it is Independent’s Day, and you will be closed.

While part of me smugly smiled and rolled my eyes at the sign, the better part of me saw the poetry. And the academic in me had to look up the difference between independence and independent’s.

• Independence Day: Celebration of freedom from the control of others.
• Independent’s Day: Celebration of not depending upon another for value; capable of standing complete.

So what is the creative grammatical authority of the nail salon showing me? They are closing the shop for July 4th’s Independence Day because it is a federal holiday which celebrates freedom from the control of others--usually when others are British (let’s not go down the path of political ironies here). But what they are really celebrating is Independent’s Day; a day of being complete without depending on others for value. For the workers in the salon, it’s a celebration of using their real names and not being called Tina or Jennifer or Linda. It’s a day of ignoring dirty fingernails, chipped nail polish, and demands of less square or more pointy. It’s a day of doing things that make you feel complete within yourself.

Though I was not invited to any Independent’s Day celebrations, I do believe I shall start encouraging in them.

Independence Day: Anything American.
Red, white, and blue. Hot dogs, hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob, apple pie. Baseball, eating, shooting guns.

Independent’s Day: Anything You-ian.

Just as Festivus serves as an alternative for or complement to all of those December holidays, Independent's Day runs parallel to those patriotic July holidays. We can count Canada Day in this, right? It can be celebrated any day in July--I’m feeling July 3. Or perhaps the 5th. No, the 3rd. Which is the day on which I am writing this blog. I am on a vacation inside of my vacation, enjoying a morning at Amy’s Coffee House in Kewaunee, Wisconsin writing while the husband and kids get their fishing gear together, my sister-in-law does some important company president work at the vacation house, and Grandma hangs out with the dog. Everyone is adding his or her own value to the day; each of us is standing complete.

John Lennon said that “A Hard Day’s Night” was a malapropism that Ringo coined. After a long day of recording, they came out of the studio and he started to say he’d had a hard day’s work not knowing that the day had become night and ended up saying he'd had a hard day's--whoops--night. I will trust the author, even if it is Ringo, and believe that he indended to add something to the language that we did not have before. His mid-thought auto-correction became an album, and a movie, and a song that is now running through your head.

Happy Independent’s Day!