Exclamation Point (!)

A harmless text.  Nothing special about the words exchanged.  What set it apart was the punctuation mark that concluded his thoughts.  KC’s choice of the exclamation point spoke volumes!  I remember staring at my phone, somewhat perplexed. Exactly what he meant was unknown to me.  

I am just a mom asking her son a basic question and his short response was sweet but peppered with the (!) indicating STRONG feelings.  Did I say something wrong, was I meddling, maybe he was having a bad day or angry at his mother for another reason.  My mind goes into overdrive analyzing that simple line with a dot (!).

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An exclamation used to be my favorite mark at the end of a sentence.  I would see it as an interjection of a sharp or sudden utterance of amazement.  Oh yes, the good old innocent days!  Now life is lived with some level of anxiety.  A pandemic with confirmed cases & deaths still on the rise - I dare say - has given the (!) too much power.  Our every thought in 2020 seems marked with it.

Overly sensitive, maybe.  But as we bid farewell to a year that rendered us vulnerable, kept us off balance and exposed many insecurities – I propose we remove the use of (!) when sending harmless text messages.  Reserving them only for moments of prayer! Moments of awe! And the occasional use telling mom you Love her!