Editing: our lives, our actions, and our words

Much of my work revolves around words: arranging words, writing words, and editing words.

Last week I considered the word racism. And then the opposite, respect: to show regard or consideration for.

As I considered the words, I imagined editing them, replacing one with the other. Then illustrating the idea with red line editing; crossing out the unwanted word, writing in the new one.

Spell-check and track changes in word processing documents have replaced red line edits done by hand. A hand-drawn line through a word with a loop at the end indicates the word should be taken out. Removed. The arrow indicates what it should be replaced with.

If only it were that easy to edit and change behavior. To replace racism with respect.