Write Stuff Cafe

As the daughter of a Latin teacher, there are times when I can’t help but think in Latin. The phrases that my mother was constantly teaching us, saying to us, writing out in the margins of her journals. Errare humanum est – To err is human.

Naturally, when I was scanning the list of words associated with the publishing world, my eyes automatically stopped on the word “errata.” And I heard my mom’s voice saying, that’s the Latin word for errors.

The actual definition of “errata” in the publishing world? Errata: a loose sheet detailing errors found in a book.

In my book, that one that’s still swirling around in my head, the one about my errors, my missteps, my failing forward to the next decade and the next and the next, will I find all the details of those errors on the loose sheets? Or will those errors, my errata that makes me human, will all those loose sheets bind together to form my book?

The marriage that never should have happened.

The babies that never grew.

The time that was wasted.

The memories that were lost.

Will there be errors on my errors that I write about? Maybe it’s a double negative and the errors will cancel themselves out. The writing won’t be perfect. I might not always get the stories right. But mom would say, “Errare humanum est.”

And so I will be human, and let my errata fill page after page after page.