Capital Improvements

Lately, a few things about D/s that used to make me just laugh are starting to make more sense to me. Or at least I'm taking them more seriously than I used to, let's say.

One bit of D/s "protocol" that never resonated with me before was the whole deal with capitalizing the names of the Dom/mes and lower-casing the those of the subs. I got why it was helpful in a chatroom to be able to identify who's who, but when people actually got offended by typos it was pretty silly. I mean, once you've established how things are, why do we need to keep all those details straight? And don't even get me started on the more esoteric complexities of using slashes (Y/you, W/we, etc.) or possessive pronouns (If I say k is "mine," do I capitalize it because "Mine" refers to Me? or do I lowercase it because "mine" refers to her? or ... please no ... is this another case for a slash?)

Anyhow, getting past all that, the capital/lowercase thing is actually starting to work for me now. And it's all because of my k, really. When she first started using capitals to refer to me a lot, a few months ago, at first I didn't take it too well. Saw it as a sort of "distancing" or formalizing of our relationship, a way to keep it compartmentalized away from the rest of her life. And maybe there's still a bit of that in there. But now I see it more clearly I think ... as a sort of generous gesture. Not a respect thing, really, at least not in the formal D/s sense of respect (the day k starts treating me with that kind of formality will be the day I know I've lost her). It's more of a loving reminder of our special kind of relationship. A little alteration in the way she types that keeps the fact that I'm her Dom front and center all the time.

And in our conversations I've started to do the capitalization thing myself. Still not doing it here, though who knows maybe some day I'll get to that. And of course I'm no stickler for it at all - don't think anybody'll be spanked for forgetting or anything (though hmmm...) For now, I get a warm feeling in my chest every time I see my lovely and wonderful k using the capitals, because I know it's a tiny communication of love.