Potty-mouthed and Proud

Sometime ago this post on homeschooling appeared on the internet:

Aaron (doing his spelling): "Mom, what is a four-letter word that begins with Sh?"

Me: "Shit"

Aaron: "Can I really write that down?"

More noteworthy to me is this response:

If we men stand any chance of getting to heaven, it will be because we were privileged to be married to women like this.

I know that I am a bit of a prude when it comes to those popular four letter words, but this seems to be stretching the desire to be Catholic and keep your cultural relevance. Of course, my aversion to such language stems from the most anti-catholic of teachers, brother Malcolm X, who said that people curse when they do not have any better words in their vocabulary to use. (the actual quote is better, I just don't have it handy.) I do have this one by Mr. X though:

"[Bimbi the prison philosopher's discussions] ended my vicious cursing attacks. My approach sounded so weak alongside his, and he never used a foul word."

And, to keep disseminating wisdom from Vonnegut (this time from Bluebeard):

Circe Berman argues that the inclusion of once-taboo words into ordinary conversations is a good thing, since women and children are now free to discuss their bodies without shame, and so to take car of themselves more intelligently.

I said to her, "Maybe so. But don't you think all this frankness has also caused a collapse of eloquence?" I reminded her of the cook's daughter's habit of referring to anybody she didn't like for whatever reason as "an asshole." I said: "Never did I hear Celeste give a thoughtful explanation of what it was that such a person might have done to earn that protological sobriquet."

Then again, Vonnegut was a foul-mouthed S.O.B., so take it for what it is worth. . .

In the end, it is inconsequential. The swearing doesn't really bother me, but I don't see the need to praise it as the realism that will get us to heaven. Maybe that makes me culturally irrelevant. Mostly, I just don't want to have to adjust the way I speak in front of my mother.

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And just so you know that I am not too uptight - the first link's headline and subheadline:

June Cleaver After A Six-Pack
Warning... Alcohol may cause pregnancy. Who knew?

Now that is funny!