My daughters know their verb tenses. I can hold my own when matching a subject with a corresponding action, but get nervous with labels of perfect, past, or continuous. Infinitives stretch my brain still further, and irregulars make my teeth rattle. Then there is pluperfect which somehow means better than perfect. What is
better than perfect?
Arabic is more conservative with a mere 3-4 tenses, but the Spanish go for the gold with 15-20 combinations of moods and aspects with tenses.
It all sounds like splitting hairs, to specify the exact time, duration, and likelihood of anyone embarking on an activity. Can't we just say Sally sometimes sings, not sure when she began or whether she will ever stop? It is still music.
Today
is Thanksgiving. Not Thanksweregiven, or Thankswillbegiven, or even Thanksgave. The verb there suggests to my not entirely linguistically savvy brain that the job isn't over. Even though I've sat at sixty-five tables piled with food, marched into church with a fruit offering as many times, (okay, I was carried in the early years) I intend to go again today with a grateful heart and an apple.
Perhaps God knows something I have yet to discover. The response called giving
thanks impacts me even as it courses through my body. I have an image of Hercules redirecting the river to clean the Augean stable in a single day. Gratitude cleanses me of complaints, self pity, and resentment, with one swirling, splashing swoosh.
What could be better than that?
"Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His
presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 100
