Anyday, Anyway
This week, the nagging song in my head has been Anyday by Derek and the Dominos, written by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock and from the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
Anyday, anyday, I will see you smile.
Any way, any way, just for a little, just for a little while.
It’s not that I am complaining, it’s a classic, but I think all this was triggered this week by the word anyway.
You know how we often heard Joe Biden end his sentences with the word “anyway” as his thought process trailed off.
“…Anyway..”
The fact is, my wife had someone point out to her that she often ends a thought by saying “anyway”.
I had never noticed that, but we thought it was funny and it turns out I do it as well so now we find ourselves pointing it out each time one of us does it.
Well…anyway…
Sunday morning drinking my coffee and reading my emails, I received an email from one of the many I get that are related to word meanings or grammar usage, and low and behold, this one was asking the grammatical question: “is it anyway or anyways?”
Last Friday, I headed out to the Eastern Shore to attend the Eastern Shore Writers Association’s annual Bay to Ocean Writers Conference. I have attended a few of these over the years, my first in 2017. It got me thinking about the fact that I wrote my first post on Musings of an Aging Nobody on New Year’s Day 2016 which means this is the tenth year I have been doing this. At the time the “Aging Nobody” part of the title was meant in a kind of a tongue in cheek way. I was all fired up, I was going to take that sabbatical and write that book.
Now ten years later the tongue is out of the cheek and I am facing the cold reality.
I am truly an aging nobody.
Driving out to the Eastern Shore without my wife allowed me to listen to my 60s golden oldies on SiriusXM that cause Kim anxiety but make me happy. But how is it I can remember all the words to Build Me Up Buttercup when sometimes I can’t remember what I did last week.
I am beginning to understand Joe Biden better.
It used to be I would get an idea, pull my truck off the road, and put down seven hundred words right there in a parking lot.
That is not so easy now. Though I am sure some of that is due to external distractions, Lord knows we have a few of those these days, but that aging part is tough.
Fewer words are hitting the paper with far too much time in between.
Last year I registered to attend this same conference but decided at the last minute not to go since I hadn’t been writing much and thought it may be a waste of time.
This year I decided to go hoping it might motivate me to have more of those pull the truck off the road moments.
Maybe it helped a little, I have gotten this far…
But anyway…
You don’t want to hear all that.
But let’s see, is it anyway or anyways?
Well according to the Word Smart email I received, in a nutshell:
“Anyway” is the standard, formal version of the word. This useful adverb means “in any case” or “without regard to other considerations.” It can also signify an additional consideration or a shift in thought. The alternate spelling, “anyways,” retains the same meaning and is listed in Merriam-Webster as a dialectical or informal U.S. spelling of “anyway.”
There you have it, in case you were wondering, and I am sure you were.
Well anyway…
It’s been fun so I think I will keep doing it.
And any day, in any way, if I can make you smile (or cry maybe), even if it’s just for a little while, it’s worth it.