This year, the Order invites us to appreciate the little things.
We all remember advertising slogans along these lines: “In the small things the detail shines”, “From the invisible sprouts the great tree”, “Great successes are the sum of small actions”.
As the inner sap that animates this project of praise for the minuscule, we turn to St. Augustine, who tells us: “Do you aspire to great things? Start with the smallest”.
It happened to me that while I was visiting St. Joseph House in Madrid, a religious commented: “Year of small things. Year, then, of the well punctuated writing, attention to the graphic detail, purpose of care in the written materials that circulate for the Order”.
This phrase of a get-together, launched me into a mental leap: Yes, year of the proofreader!
From the outset, I would like to say that I am pleased with the careful spelling in which the documents are published, as well as with the pleasant layout of the monthly retreat and ongoing formation materials, and with the care taken in the correction of the books dedicated to our public.
This rigor looks like a seal of solera worthy of our Recollect Order.
Juan Manuel Torrecilla, as “proofreader”, that indispensable technician in the ancient printing presses and also necessary in the modern means of publishing.
A detail such as the comma is of capital importance: “No quiero más”, changes its meaning when he says: “No, quiero más”.
Azorín was a writer who was characterized by focusing on the smallest things, drawing them with linguistic precision.
To do so, he displayed graphic meticulousness, where each comma and each period is a chisel stroke.
The virgulilla, the accent, the period, the comma… are small letters that can transform a big reality.
“Let’s have dinner, children” is not “let’s have dinner, children”; and an inopportune typo can produce an extravagance: “Waiter: a horse in the soup”.
Modern times are given to speed and little attention to detail.
It is a friend of the “grosso modo“, that is to say of the “more or less” or of the “you get the picture”.
This liquid society, lacking attention to detail, is eroding the norms, the principles of courtesy and the manuals of civility at the same speed that it is demolishing the rules of language, without appreciating that correctness in writing is nothing more than a gesture of respect and politeness.
A year dedicated to the little things.
We should take the time to regain our lost affection for linguistic correctness, precise detail and correct writing.
Small things require a lot of time.
When I receive this invitation to take care of apparently unimportant things, I would like to make a toast to this religious who is busy weeding weeds and anacoluths to ensure that the writings come out worthy and accurate as clean creatures, just as I extend my congratulations to the religious who take the time to “layout”, leaving them as a pleasant garden, the writings that are offered to us.
In his work De Grammatica, Augustine explains in detail such seemingly small elements as the figure, the syllable and the sign, and in sermon 213 he tells us: “Be great in small things; but do not be small in small things”, a sentence that should also be applied to written communication.
A toast to proofreaders!
The detail is the difference.