Ellipses

I love ellipses (ellipsis: Greek for “elleipein” meaning “to fall short or leave out.”)

Not everybody does; those few dots can be intimidating, even threatening.

Life is full of ellipses: omissions, suppressions, silences—words that are understood, unnecessary to be spoken—suspenseful moments, hesitations, irrelevancies, changes of mood, expletives—the severity of which cannot be expressed—pauses and trailing thoughts . . .

There are different opinions on whether an ellipsis consists of three or four dots, the fourth dot being a full stop at the end of a sentence.

When contemplating the lives (and deaths) of those subjected to social exclusion we should never come to a full stop and, instead, admit there is no justifiable explanation.

Then the question if there should be a space between the last word and the first dot, or the last dot and the first word, or between all the dots—depending on the grammatical context. 

In my opinion, the emotional context determines the number and spacing of the dots. If the dots are there to steer clear of incrimination, by avoiding to voice an opinion, or to figure out how to finish a sentence, three quick dots will do. I am simply telling you, “I am removing myself; you fill in the blank…”

At other times the spaces are necessary to allow time to pause, to be silent, to mourn, to suspend my thoughts—an ellipsis is also called a “suspension point”—to leave out the imposed necessity for further words . . . simply because there are none.

Ellipses are inserted—voluntarily or involuntarily— into many people’s lives: silences, suppressions, omissions, irrelevancies, expletives, pauses; often causing irreversible damage, affecting a person’s very psyche—soul, mind and spirit. Their lives begin to reflect the expletive, expressed by a constant state of resentment, violence, uncontrollable rage; or they fall silent and isolate themselves, finding safety in non-existence—they become the ellipsis itself, the omission, the space between the dots—because someone else always takes up space and is deemed more important than them. 

Ellipses are a suggestion for the need to create space to insert others in my life.

Allow someone else space to insert themselves, express themselves, assert themselves, exist—take up space in my existence.

Ellipses are a call to suspend my life, and allow another . . . theirs.