I don’t think it should take too much common sense to
understand the power of your tongue. I can remember as a young teen being at a
Boy Scout Campout where a few of us let out a few rather vulgar phrases into
the night air only to be reprimanded by our Scout Leader. I can reflect on
asking Ron, our leader, what was the big deal because we had often heard him
express himself in a similar fashion. I was raised in a home where respect and
talking with a normal tone with uplifting expressions was considered the
standard.
Yet, as I reflect over my college years, doing construction
work and now having lived in the inner city over the last 7 years there is a
genuine fascination with foul language with most. I can’t fathom that the F-bomb
has taken first place in our typical vocabulary choices for interacting with
our friends forget picking on those we can’t stand. I get my button pushed when
I see a little 7 year screaming at someone with using a word to describe their
racial background attached to the F-word. How is it possible for this little
guy or gal to know these terms and how to use them?
I always chuckle when my amazing wife will get her button
pushed by one of our teens or an adult that is going off on someone and she
will end up screaming out something like get a life and increase your vocab! I
know that increasing someone’s vocab choices requires either reading or
listening to someone who has an extraordinary background. I have to admit that
I at times pride myself on expanding my word choice to show others how shallow
they are to stick with the normal F-bomb expressions or take the Divine Name in
vain.
I do react to racist expressions that don’t make any sense
at all. I can remember as a 7 year old being instructed by one of my
grandparents about how terrible a certain race happen to be and then be given a
variety of terms to describe them. I can laugh looking back at my dad’s
reaction to grandma but to him it was totally demeaning and inappropriate for
grandma to do this. I know that there is power in words to put a person down or
to elevate them to be positive and capable of rocking the world.
Why do we tend to always gravitate to trash talk when we are
around friends? I’m always surprised when a coach is fined some incredible
amount because of foul language when the reality is that most athletes and
coaches have horrible demeaning expressions they use to get their opponent to
react on game day. I was ready to lose it one day while driving a group of
teens home when one of the guys, a visitor, didn’t seem to know how to talk
without using the F-bomb every other word. I tried to get this teen to
understand that his foul mouth didn’t add anything to the conversation and
definitely didn’t make him any more attractive to any of the girls.
The opportunity as I see it is for those who have a positive
outlook on life to express themselves louder and more pointedly then those with
trash mouths. I like how the Letter of James in the Bible describes how such a
small instrument the tongue happens to be and how it can either cause great
good or great evil. It does matter not only what we say but also how we say it because
our expressions will influences those around us. So let’s ban the F-bomb
expressions and come out with something more witty and thought provoking
instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment