Clean Language

Ask anyone who knows me and one thing they will all tell you is I never swear. The policy in my house is also no swearing unless there's a really good reason - like cutting yourself. But outside my house you can swear a blue streak as long as you want.

There's a few reasons why I have and follow this policy. Mostly it's because I feel that people who swear are being lazy thinkers. It's easy to throw in a few curse words into any sentence to make people aware that you don;t like something. It's challenging to express yourself without swearing.

Now I don't go ballistic on people who do swear in my house but they will get "The Look". It's remarkably effective. Probably because I treat people as adults who really should know better and expect them to behave as adults. So being given The Look is equivalent to being told to act their age.

I find it amusing how people will change on a subconscious level when they aren't being pressures. I took a course and it was all guys except for me. The teacher tried to enforce a no swearing rule but it was pointless. The guys were too used to swearing when they spoke. Yet, before the course was over, no one was swearing in class and when one did slip it was always followed by them turning quickly and apologizing to me.

What did I do to make this happen? Nothing. I simply ignored anyone who was swearing and if addressed answered with respect and absolutely no swearing. So, in this case, it was a change by example situation. I think it was the fact that i wasn't making a fuss over the swearing that impressed the guys and got them to change on their own. Or at least to stop swearing while they were around me.

I've listened to so-called comedians who tell jokes with so much swearing in them that people aren't laughing at the jokes. They're laughing at all the swearing. I don't find that funny. If the joke can't stand on it's own then it isn't a joke worth telling.

I guess the way I look at it is that swearing was supposed to be something rarely heard and then only in cases where attention had to be grabbed immediately. Someone was hurt or about to be hurt? Loud swearing got people there to help.

Some people can't seem to talk without every few words being some swear word or other. So I have to sort through what they just said to find what they just said. Swearing was meant to grab the attention and it works really well at distracting me from the other words around them.

Now, I do have a couple of sayings for when I need to get attention although I rarely use one nowadays. My daughter loves it though. It was something I learned from my grandmother. When she was mad enough to swear she would say "Horse feathers!"  My daughter still uses that and she loves the reactions she gets from people hearing it for the first time.

Myself, people know I'm upset if I say "Bloody hell" or "Sacre bleu". Sometimes I'll just use "Bloody" when describing something. The funny thing is that in Britain saying "Bloody hell" is considered swearing a blue streak. Good thing I don't live in Britain then. Lol.

What I find amusing about people swearing is the fact that they are using language originally derived from a legal term. Being so fond of words I often like to check on the origins of words in use. And today's favorite swear word - was a legal term for being found under carnal knowledge. When one of my moods hit me I like to point out to people how impossible it is for certain things to have carnal knowledge. Naturally, I get blank looks and have to explain.

At least I find it funny.