Tuesday, October 17, 2006

SPC: Imperfection, Week 3 - Potty Mouth

Time for yet another week of wallowing in our (alleged) flaws for the October Self-Portrait Challenge. Funny, I never noticed before how long the month of October is. It must have at least what....57 days or so? Yeah. Anyway... Before my weekly SPC confession I must make it clear that my parents are blameless in this matter. They tried to raise me right. They took me to church. They read stories to me and taught me to read them to myself. They made it clear that certain behavior wasn't acceptable in their home. They taught me the concept of respect for myself and others. They were both teachers who had excellent vocabularies and tried to pass that on to me. And I think it worked, really. I think most of what they tried to teach me stuck. It's just that in the end my vocabulary has come to include some words that are a bit more, um....colorful than they might have liked. I don't mean I cuss constantly or anything - not even close. I know profanity is overused a lot in modern society and I get as tired as anyone else of hearing someone drop a half-dozen F-bombs into a mundane observation about the weather. But I also think it's a bit ridiculous that there is still a perception in some circles that a "nice" person shouldn't say anything more vulgar than "Good gracious! Mercy me, that certainly does sting!" even if her arm is being chewed off by a rabid dog. So I admit it. Judging by the standards with which I was raised, I ended up with a bit of a potty mouth. I use some words and phrases that would make my mother wince if she was still around to hear them. And sometimes I think maybe I should try to be a bit less bawdy, a bit more refined. But other times? Well. Like it or not, sometimes there's just nothing more satisfying in this world than raising your head to the sky and yelling "Fuck this shit!!!" "Self-Portrait with Potty Mouth" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window)