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I would say I swear more because when I was at work for 8 hours a day, dealing with customers and people of varying backgrounds, I really didn't swear at all during that 8 hours, and so I had to sort of censor myself at home enough that my off-duty swearing didn't accidentally slip out at work. I still have times now that I have to censor myself, but that's really only occasionally when I'm around folks that are more religious or more prim. Usually I swear when it's some kind of OOPS situation, something that really aggravates me, or for emphasis.
My Dad was a swear-aholic, and a loud one at that, and the neighbors just got used to it over the years, and he could swear over the littlest things. When my Dad would go on one of his swearing streaks, my mother would take me aside and say: Just listen to him carrying on in the garage! You ever use that kind of vocabulary, you'll be joining your Father in hell some day!
Big choice: Forsake that kind of vocabulary and join my Mother in Heaven or join my Dad one day!
In that case, I'm doomed. Thought that being nice to everyone made up for it.
I was raised in a home where swearing wasn't used. Of course when I left I built up my vocabulary. There's a lot of power in them there words.
Then I worked government jobs most of my working life and raised kids so the swearing was kept to exclusive situations. I guess that pretty much proves I knew they weren't such healthy things to fling out into the atmosphere.
My anecdote about cursing/street language and a silly solution:
In my thirties I switched jobs and began working with a chemically dependent, mentally ill and often criminal population. It was not unusual for them to use obscenities and curses to try to intimidate and I started to think about how we use these words and the effects they have on others.
Humorously, like others who worked in a medical setting and had to watch their vocabulary, I discovered that I could maintain by using the actual clinical terms instead of street language and reverse the power differential like a snap of the fingers.
Want to intimidate? Check out the medical terms for body parts. Tough men break down. LOL You can have a whole group of potty-mouths looking at the floor right quick, embarrassed as heck.
At any rate I've decided that words make a difference and I'm always trying to make my life as comfortable as possible. Why? Not because I'm Puritanical but because to me cursing is a negative thing to send out to the world of listeners and doesn't make my space or my mindset a positive place to be. And I sure want to create that relaxed space for myself to live in especially in retirement.
And as others have said there's not much left in my life worth getting upset about anymore. Been there; done that. Didn't help much.
I say crap-and other words that basically mean the same thing-both in English and in French frequently. As for the "F" word, I do say it occasionally-but not too often. I can't say if I use these "colorful metaphors" (as Spock called them) more or less now. I would say it is about the same.
Cat
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