Have you heard of www.projectsemicolon.org ? Well, if not, look it up. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
You back? Good.
I’m a big supporter of programs that help raise mental health awareness, and the message–that the semicolon represents a place where the author could have ended a sentence but chose not to, and we are all the authors of our lives–is one that has a lot of meaning to me. I’ve never been suicidal, but I’ve been very self-destructive in my day.
I paused that sentence, though, and I’m starting a new one.
I have also seen several photos of the semicolon as the body of a butterfly, which is extra symbolic. The caterpillar is the first part of the sentence; the butterfly is the rest.
Soon I’ll have my semicolon tattoo. I’ll join the movement. I’ll spread my wings and all that poetic stuff.