Profanity

A friend has a cuppa with a really funny statement on it that includes a swear word. I was tempted to use it in my post today, but I decided not to because this blog is PG-rated. I don’t know who might read it; best not to risk offending.

But, as I told my friend, that doesn’t mean I don’t swear. There are moments when profanity flies out of me, vocal evidence of extreme frustration or anger, shock or amusement. In my experience, a curse word (or two or three) can make it easier to get through the feelings and move on.

I do have boundaries – I was raised to believe that there are some places, some situations where profanity is simply not acceptable. And, as with my written blog, I strive not to offend in my verbal speech. I try to communicate in a way that isn’t objectionable, which sometimes requires me to be creative with my word choices. That can actually be a beneficial challenge as it forces me to polish my language skills. It would be inauthentic of me, however, to pretend that I don’t know and never use “naughty” words.

I read somewhere that swearing can be a sign of intelligence. There appears to be a correlation between verbal skills and profanity use, as people who have extensive “regular” vocabularies often also have extensive swearing vocabularies. These vocabularies can play an important role in higher-level emotional processing and expression. So, perhaps profanity doesn’t always deserve its negative reputation.

Nevertheless, communication is a two-way street, so I’ll continue to keep my posts profanity-free. I have sarcastic cuppas and cuppas with pictures and colors, shapes and sizes that can serve to illustrate my feelings and points without swear words. That doesn’t mean, however, that you won’t find a few fiery words contained in the cupboard where my cuppa collection is stored.