When I was little, my Mom had a way to deal with us when we
said bad things. She would wash our mouths out with soap. It was always fun
watching this process when one of my 5 siblings were having their mouths washed
out with soap… Until the day it was my turn. I said a bad word, I said PeePee.
Go ahead and laugh, but we are talking the 60’s. But the truth of the matter
was that I wasn’t talking about making water, but I was referring to a boy’s
private parts. I knew it, and though I disguised it with a word that could have
meant something else, my Mom knew it too. Soap – YUK.
I know even today we all use words to express something vulgar,
but disguise it with a word that could mean something else. The truth of the
matter is that we know what we meant to say… and, so does most if not all that
hear us say it. In our world of texting, the famous OMG certainly softens the
impact of taking the Lord’s name in vain, but we know what we mean. Or to
exclaim “Jeeze” as though leaving “US” out of the word disguises our degrading
of the name of our Lord Jesus.
How about dropping the F-BOMB in polite company, just by
disguising it with different letters that make a word that could mean something
else… But we know what we meant to say, and so does everybody that hears us. I
am guilty of being corny with jokes, and especially love living so close the Percy
Priest Dam. So I can easily say something like “We have to go down that DAM
road” and by all rights I didn’t really cuss… But I know what I am saying. My
wife knows too, so she tells me, “If you want to cuss, just cuss, don’t pretend
with a play on words”. That woke me up.
My Step-Father once told me that people that cuss all the
time do it because they do not possess an intelligent vocabulary, and fill in
their sentences with cuss words, thinking it makes them look cool, when in fact
it just makes them look dumb. So how much worse is it when we can’t even use
the real cuss words when we cuss? How dumb is that. So as one of the smartest
women I have ever known once said, “If you want to cuss, just Cuss”.
Now if there is a reason you disguise the vulgar words you
use, like maybe you think it is actually Vulgar to speak that way, why not just
get a dictionary out and learn some intelligent words to use in your sentences
so you will look smart. Believe me, DUMB is not cool. Smart Rules!
MFL
4-14-2016
