Swearing

The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it.

George Washington

 

I guess I have the sentiments of our first president.  My how things have changed in the last 238 years. 

 

My loathing of the swear word came during my 18th year on this earth.  Before that, I could swear with the best of them.  But not in front of adults.  I knew my boundaries(Yes, yet another way things have changed.)  But during the summer I turned 18, I was working with a group of kids the same age as me.  During lunch one day, I said some swear word, and the one of the kid's response was something like, "If you profess to be a Christian, why are you talking like that?"

 

Well, that got me thinking.  And it wasn't as if I liked swearing.  And I did try and stop on my own, because I knew in my heart I shouldn't talk that way.  But I couldn't do it. 

 

But then I went to church camp that summer.  And a lot changed in my life that week.  God's Holy Spirit is very powerful, and can make some big life changes in a person's life.  Such as eliminating swearing from your vocabulary.

 

That is what happened to me.  All of a sudden, it was gone.  It wasn't that I tried hard enough to stop it.  It was gone. 

 

But, with the elimination of those words from my vocabulary came a sensitivity to hearing those words that I hadn't really had before.  So I had to learn how to deal with being around people who swore on a regular basis.

 

I probably didn't handle it in the most loving way at first.  I was probably very judgmental.  I was probably very confused.  But I was 18, and life can be very confusing about a lot of things at that age.

 

Today, 32 years later, swearing is not a regular part of my vocabulary.  Oh, I am human, and occasionally something slips out that I wish wouldn't, but I ask for forgiveness and move on.

 

I realize I live in a world where people swear.  And I have learned to handle being around people who swear with a little more grace than I did 32 years ago.  But that doesn't mean I like it.

 

One of the things I like least working at schools is walking down the hallways and listening to the swear words, especially the F word, come out of kids mouths with quite a bit of regularity.  When I take groups of students on trips, I remind them to not swear, and that is usually all it takes.  So they do have the ability to not have it a part of their conversation all the time.

 

“Vulgarity is like a fine wine: it should only be uncorked on a special occasion, and then only shared with the right group of people.”
― James Rozoff

 

I like the above quote.  I don't see this as much in our culture today.  It is more common place. 

 

Maybe I'm old fashioned.  Maybe I'm like the Lion who is slowly becoming extinct:

 

It might be too late for lions. The number in the wild has dropped by as much as half in 20 years. Today there are an estimated 16,500 to 47,000 African lions, down from 400,000 in 1950. Their population has been carved up into ever-tightening, isolated ranges. Humans are spreading into these small pockets of space, and instability on the continent isn't conducive to conservation.

 

Here would be my write up on the non-swearer and the danger of them becoming extinct:

 

Like the lion, the number of non-swearers has dropped over the years.  We non-swearers population has been carved up into ever-tightening, isolated ranges.  Swearers are spreading into these small pockets of space, and instability on the continent isn't conducive, not to conservation, but to conversation!!

 

So my swearing write up isn't to convert swearers to become non-swearers.

 

In fact, some of you may be thinking this:

 

 

 

And that is okay.

 

But maybe, just maybe, my little write up on swearing will make you aware that there are a small number of us out there who do exist without trying to use swear words in our vocabulary, and that you may want to leave us what little land we have left to survive!!