Journal: Nitpicking
We have a regular customer who nitpicks about, what seems to me are, the oddest things. Today he mentioned the definition of driving. Apparently, the term driving almost exclusively refers to the commercial operation of a motor vehicle, thus the only people who are required to hold a driver’s license are those engaged in said commercial activities (with a few exceptions). Everyone else can get away with getting a passport card.
This got me thinking about the things that we are each very particular about. For instance, I have very strong opinions about the parameters of certain music genres and what is and what is not a graphic novel. These are nits that I have picked to what are truly preposterous proportions, yet they are still distinctions that matter to me.
Why? Why is this that important to me? Why am I, to use a modern parlance, triggered when someone calls The Bouncing Souls a pop punk band or refers to Watchmen as a graphic novel? Heck, I did an entire assignment in grad school ranting about a textbook’s improper use of the term graphic novel. Why? Sure words matter but come on now, this is silly.
Yet…it still matters to me.
Now I am curious; what other people are nitpicky about? And why. And what causes this? Does everyone do this? I suspect that mine is a manifestation of my ADHD but that is just a guess.