The Meaning Behind the Message

I was talking to two friends of mine after a hard day in the park of running around frantically after our under-seven kids. Our children were finally locked in our individual cars, dirty and exhausted, and we were sitting down on the curb relaxing for a brief moment before we had to wind up again for the ride home.

Yes, weve been reduced to saying, S and D and B and A and even (gosh forbid) F." We, as adults, are going back into childish word-games, trying to convince our sons and daughters that there is actually no explicit crude speech in the English language. If they do learn these horrid, ghastly words, we want them to forget them ASAP. Yet we praise our children for learning vocabulary. It doesnt make sense.

 Or does it?

 

Another friend of mine taught her boy the alternatives to the cuss words rather than the real ones. For example, the little boy is saying Oh shoot! My frigging shoes are gosh darn muddy!  Since hes five, its still suitable to think its cute. Everybody is happy with his language but I know better:  hes a sailor in disguise. As he learns the real words (yes, as soon as he hits grade school), hes only going to trade the substitute words for the real things.

 

Does it matter?

 

Well, for my friend, probably especially since she also has two more children who look up to this sailor in admiration and wonder. As soon as they learn to talk, theyll probably imitate him.

 

So are there are good words and bad words? A lot of the populace say yea: good words are everything but the dreaded thirteen bad ones (you figure them out). But why are they such loaded pistols? After all, words are words. A long time ago, shite (Old English) could be used in well-mannered company it was the same as bowel movement is today. Faggot (Italian) was a bundle of sticks. Fuck, some say was either a modification of fuker, a cloth maker, or fulcher, a solider. It wasnt, however, the etymology of Fornication Under Consent of the King or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. And bitch has always been used for a female dog. Etc.

 

In other words, I could say, in polite conversation, that the little fuker picked up a faggot and a bitch before taking a shite.

 

Nigger," the most unmentionable word in the English language at least in America is only unmentionable for white people (and Hispanic and Asian as well). However, I hear black men saying the word in passing in a very friendly fashion to other black men.

 

Its only your concept of the word that makes it taboo.

 

Turning the subject around slightly, words in a different language that you dont understand are empty as well. Kai Tae sounds like a beautiful exotic name to me. However, in Tongan, it means eat shit." Oghrash sounds like gibberish in the English point of view, but in Azeri, it means motherfucker." Ma nu lun sounds like baby talk, but in Urdu, it means My dick in your mom."

 

Pleasant conversation.

 

Whats my point? Poetry and prose, if worked correctly, are incredible things because they liberate ideas. Lawrence Paros, the top etymology book author, commented, I don't think there's really such a thing as a bad word. What really upsets me is bad usage. Not bad grammatical usage, but when language is not used to really convey information or tell the truth or to touch on our humanity, but when language is used to dehumanize, or to obfuscate or to cloud our minds

 

Both children and adults should learn how to wind words all words correctly. The word is used for the point of the message, whether that message is banal or thrilling or even offensive; the idea has already been formed before the words get uttered. Thus, if the children understand the right and the wrongs of the meaning itself, then you neednt worry about the words.

 

You miss the point when the word takes more relevance than the concept behind it.

 

What about you? my friend asked me, have any horrible stories for us before we haul our respective asses and those of our children home?

 

Hmmm, I said. Did you know that the word ass wasnt originally from an ass as in donkey but always ass as in buttocks, usually on an animal and not on a person? Instead, it was the word ors in the Indo-European which turned into aers in Old English, then arse in modern England, then ass in America.

 

My friends stared at me. Then we stood up, groaning and moaning. Time to go home.

 

Politics Saving the Tigers from extinction It was a hurriedly organized citizen�s meeting at Guwahati Press Club, where serious concerns were expressed at the increasing trend of poaching and killing of wildlife in various parts of Assam. more Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il 20.Dec 2011 Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more ferti...read Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media�s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY Opinion The EIP factor - what you should learn from it When we grow older, or get older for the sake of the argument, we tend to start seeing the world only from one side. We tend to believe, no, not believe but know, how things are done. If you are smart, you understand that it shouldn't be that way, you understand this is wrong. more The fight against cyber-censorship 26.Apr 2012 The fight against cybercensorship is more essential than ever. By creating blog...read ET TU, ELAD? or ISRAELIS THINK NETANYAHU IS ON THEIR SIDE 27.Feb 2012 Elad Pressman, to my mind, is Israel's leading deep investigative journalist. T...read World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) 22.Jan 2012 EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the go...read The Great OSCARS 2011 � or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read

Travel Teens think life's a box of chocolate, Birdgestone begs to differ 26.Apr 2012 Well, not exactly, but Bridgestone has brought some additional attention to a t...read more Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Pack 'n Go Publishing Taxi Of Tomorrow: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg goes with Nissan Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?