Swearing

If you know me, you've never heard me swear. You've never read a swear I wrote (except one person, in one MSN conversation).

The question is why not.

Well the first and most obvious answer is: I follow rules. It must have started simply with being a good kid, but somehow it got built right into my core. I don't follow rules blindly, but I definitely don't break rules arbitrarily. So not swearing came very naturally.

But as I have grown up, and as my friends and other people I know started to swear, I could never do it. At first it was simply the rules kicking in. But I have slowly realized that I've never come across a situation where a swear would be effective and appropriate.

When I have thought out arguments or disputes in my head before they have occurred, I have come across spaces where I thought a swear might fit perfectly. But then as the imaginary dispute plays over again, I realize that I still wouldn’t mean what I was saying, since the situation still would never be dire enough to necessitate a swear.

I guess that I think of swears in the same way I think of coffee. By not using it now, it will only be more effective when I really need it (I guess the same goes for antibiotics). Though this thinking results in never actually drinking coffee and never swearing (except I do drink coffee when I don’t need it, like on vacations, or when I am drawing in coffee shops).

As for exceptions to me swearing, I am open to using them in art, film or performance, but as of yet, it has never come up as a real problem.

Kyler

No comments: