Bad Words
I don't use cusswords, except in the secrecy of my mind. I think this avoidance was set into place by being raised by a widowed mother who never cursed -- except during moments of extreme rage. These moments were so rare and unexpected that hearing her carry on like that appalled me, so much that even during moments of my own extreme rage, I still don't curse. But since I can't remember ever having had a moment of extreme rage, how would I know what I would say? And my mother certainly had good reasons for her lapses.
From watching films and TV, especially the HBO world, I get the impression that frequent cursing is widespread and regarded as being entirely natural, though here in Virginia I seldom run into anybody who does much of it. Can that be because they quickly perceive that I don't? And if so, are they relieved that for those few moments they don't have to be fashionably profane, or do they feel unpleasantly constrained in their misuse of language?
Instead of blaming it on my mother, the rationale I give to myself for not "using bad words," as the habit was put during my childhood, is that I think people use the limited number of those terms as crutches because they don't have other words. But I know other words, lots of them. Also I think cursing should be reserved for expressing only extreme anger, and, as I've already said, I haven't been afflicted by such moments.
A character in a movie said that he didn't trust a man who didn't curse. Conversely I have a question or two about those who do.
That said, one of my favorite words, always voiced only to myself, is "bullshit." This is because it's such a handy catchbasin into which I can drop various aspects of the world for good, and as time goes by, one after the other of those aspects gets consigned there in my mind, so that by now that basin should be filled to overflowing, though I am sure that it is not. Yet formerly I thought so many of these things were great. Like the Olympics. And like..... But wait. I won't make a list here.
But I just wonder if in the end, I will wind up giving everything that designation, and whether that is life's ultimate instruction.
From watching films and TV, especially the HBO world, I get the impression that frequent cursing is widespread and regarded as being entirely natural, though here in Virginia I seldom run into anybody who does much of it. Can that be because they quickly perceive that I don't? And if so, are they relieved that for those few moments they don't have to be fashionably profane, or do they feel unpleasantly constrained in their misuse of language?
Instead of blaming it on my mother, the rationale I give to myself for not "using bad words," as the habit was put during my childhood, is that I think people use the limited number of those terms as crutches because they don't have other words. But I know other words, lots of them. Also I think cursing should be reserved for expressing only extreme anger, and, as I've already said, I haven't been afflicted by such moments.
A character in a movie said that he didn't trust a man who didn't curse. Conversely I have a question or two about those who do.
That said, one of my favorite words, always voiced only to myself, is "bullshit." This is because it's such a handy catchbasin into which I can drop various aspects of the world for good, and as time goes by, one after the other of those aspects gets consigned there in my mind, so that by now that basin should be filled to overflowing, though I am sure that it is not. Yet formerly I thought so many of these things were great. Like the Olympics. And like..... But wait. I won't make a list here.
But I just wonder if in the end, I will wind up giving everything that designation, and whether that is life's ultimate instruction.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 9:37 AM
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