To My Darling Spellcheck - A Love Letter

Some call it a crutch and equate it with the dumbing down of America. I, on the other hand, prefer to consider it a tool. Tools assist us with the act of creation. Tools make tasks easier. Spellcheck effectively accomplishes these things.

I am now and have always been a terrible, or in more politically correct verbiage, challenged speller. As with many people my age, when young, when there were questions about the correct spelling of a particular word we were told to look it up in the dictionary. I, as instructed, would go to the bookcase and standing on my toes pull down the massive, formidable tome from the top shelf and begin to turn it's pages. Each time I did this a recurrent thought always ran through my head, "If I don't know how to spell something how on earth can I be expected to look it up? That requires, at least, an approximate correct spelling of the word in the first place." One had to, at the very least, have the first few letters of the word in question in the correct order. Still I would dutifully continue my search, occasionally giving up and using a word synonymous with the one that had been my first choice.

During my recent job search my darling Spellcheck came into play many times. The last thing I need when attempting to make a good first impression is an obviously, to all but me, incorrect spelling. I will admit that when the message "no misspelled words" appears I do have a feeling of some accomplishment and experience a fleeting moment of pride.

I am extremely dependent on my beloved when blogging. There are certain words I find difficult to spell correctly, even with repeated use. The word resturant, resterrant...oh, whatever, always leaves me completely frustrated and befuddled. I'm surprised that my darling has not gotten frustrated with me with my repeated misspelling of that word. So far, at least, she was forgiven me this transgression.

So whether crutch or tool, Spellcheck, darling, I love you.