Grammar, Punctuation, and Right and Wrong

Recently, I read two works of fiction published in the 21st century that carried the same grammatical error within their pages. Both used 'try and' instead of 'try to'. This made me crazy. So I made a comment about it on facebook. You know how it is when you say something in judgment only to reveal your own hypocrisy? That is why Proverbs admonishes us over and over again that the wise man keeps his mouth shut.

Anyway, in my comment, I misspelled one word and apparently misused an apostrophe. Or did I? I don't know. I used to think that the proper spelling of "CDs" was "CDs", but in Reanna's 7th grade language book, it taught that "CD's" was proper, so although I didn't like it, I adopted the apostrophe in those circumstances. Consensus on facebook was that the apostrophe did not belong. I tried to look it up on Wikipedia, and there, the rule stated that apostrophes should be used on plural non-words, like "CD's". Another (probably more reliable) website said that the apostrophe should only be used on plurals of lower case letters, like when you mind your "p's" and "q's". So just as the comma used to be used before "and" in lists of three or more but isn't anymore (except in my writing), the rules of the apostrophe might be changing.

And this makes me crazy. Why? Because humans really do want to feel that they know what is right and what is wrong. We need to know where those boundary lines are because it makes us feel more secure in life. The problem is that those lines are sometimes hard to nail down.

And I suppose this is where I get into trouble with certain fundamentalists, because I think that, usually, their fundamentals are wrong. Just like grammar and punctuation, we try to define every circumstance and label it right or wrong, and then we end up with large books full of rules that people argue over and forget about the things that are really important, like relationship. That is why Jesus had to dumb all the rules back down for us: Love God, and love others.

And that is why I am going to try not to freak out about minor grammatical and punctuation issues, because if I do, I just might forget about the real purpose of language, the communication of thoughts and ideas.