*Point of view

I must get this "off my chest," whatever that means. Though this article is supposed to be about *POV in writing, I'm easily sidetracked to other topics when I write, so permit me to first say something regarding the phrase "off my chest."

What in the world does it mean to get something off my chest? Does it mean that someone dumped something on another person's chest while dining and the dumped-upon wants the dumper-upon to remove the dumped item off the dumped upon's chest and to cease and desist from future dumping upons? Or does it mean that two persons - perhaps two writers who have an argument about a critique one made of the other's writings - are wrestling, and one writer is sitting on the other writer's chest, attempting to pin the competitor's shoulders to the floor? In such a scenario, it's not at all difficult to imagine the sat-upon exclaiming to the sitter-upon, "Hey, dude, get off my chest!"

Of course, the term is an hyperbole when employed by writers. Writers never attempt to pin the shoulders of other writers when critiquing their work; they just pin back their ears. This writer can attest to that. His ears are filled with the pinholes suffered on the critter battlefields of the Internet. This is the reason he wears earmuffs and a Russian style fur hat when outside in the Western New York winters, especially when removing the snows from his property. Before suffering the justifiably inflicted ear-wounds from the critters, he always went bareheaded, even in below freezing temperatures.

Now that I've had the opportunity to get that off my chest, I realize that the topic of POV is not far different from the one above in peculiarity. When read aloud, both sound hilarious. Repeat after me: "off my chest" - "POV". Now, that certainly made you laugh, didn't it?

The term, "POV," always reminds me of "PVC" - the lengthy, six-inch wide, fiberglass pipes that were used in the septic systems of my parents' truck farm. Perhaps that's the reason for my negativity toward any POV, and also why I never have one when I write; when the septic system cleaners came in their trucks to clean the systems on the farm, they created quite a stink - literally.

Say, a light bulb is flashing over my head! I now realize that my aversion to a POV in my writing may be the reason other writers are tempted to consign my articles to the PVC pipes. I may just have to discipline myself to using a POV in my writing to avoid those pipes.

Josprel (Joseph Perrello)

josprel@verizon.net