Aw, %&*@#$!: Language Matters – In the Home and Out
In 2018, Merriam Webster, the dictionary people, added grawlix to their ledgers as an official word. A grawlix is the typographical jumble of symbols like in the title above. It’s credited to Mort Walker, creator of the cartoon Beetle Baily, whose army-barracks language is bleeped with a grawlix. A grawlix indicates the situation is deserving of a special expression yet discretion prohibits that expression. For me a grawlix satisfies a feeling of frustration without having to come up with a written word. It’s a happy alternative. But there doesn’t seem to be a spoken word (blankety-blank is too long and clumsy) that will do the job. Saying grawlix! won’t do it. Hence, the squeaky bleep noise. (My inaugural use of a grawlix was in my last blog.)
The Kinds of Words of Which I’m Speaking are…
Expletives, swear words, and words that are obscene, dirty, filthy, smutty, coarse, vulgar, gross, lewd, etc., etc.. The list goes on and on. I felt as though I was dragged through a sewer in identifying them. Not that you need to have your memory refreshed any more than I, but I did want you to know that’s the kind of word of which I speak (here-after to be referred to as a Grawlix Word or G-Word.) I grew up in boys/men’s locker rooms — football, basketball, track, etc. and I’m still in the gym several hours a week. (However, it is said women have the corner on locker room language?) So, I’ve heard all the G-Words since I was knee high, and the G-Word climate hasn’t changed in 80 years. They are as plentiful as ever. Two question arise.
Why do We use G-Words?
There are three reasons beyond shear hateful mudslinging. First, there is the arrogant, haughty, overproud need to impress others with our swagger. Ironically, such behavior reveals a sense of inferiority. A personal story: I wasn’t doing well in high school football practice just before the season opened. I needed to do something to prove my worth at quarterback. So, one day I became a super tough guy — so I thought — in spouting every G-Word in the book. My teammates looked at me like “Who is this guy?” It remains perhaps the most stupid day of my life. Second, we use it to let others know we understand them in feeling what they feel. A popular author uses G-Words in this sympathetic way hoping, I think, to more widely convey very helpful insights. As pure as that motive may be, the practice is a turn-off for me. I’m still reading but holding my nose as I do. Third, some have no motive other than no vocabulary. In Army basic training I met a fellow recruit for whom G-Words rolled effortlessly off his tongue. He was the kindest, most genuine person in my barracks. One day alone with me he broached the issue saying apologetically he meant nothing by it, that he grew up surrounded by these words in his home. I was fortunate in that regard. My mother said d____ three times in my hearing (given license by Rhett Butler and inspiration by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind which she saw at least 8 times). The only other parental incidents were my dad’s SOBs whenever our hunting dog flushed the Quail too soon. Except he pronounced it Son of a Biscuit-Eater!
What’s Wrong with G-Words?
“They pollute my angelic heart and mind to hear or see them.” Heavens no!!! (Please excuse the expletive.) Yet, if I publically object to G-Words, those quoted words will likely be why people think I do. Some think we should abstain to benefit children. I disagree. That practice tells kids the sign of maturity is the use of swear words. No, I think we’re all innately aware the answer lies within the words of the Maker of our hearts and minds found in Matthew 15:11: It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth. Meaning, of course, words are symptoms of what’s in the heart. Years ago I was privileged with a Club House Badge to the Masters Golf Tournament. While there I needed to use a stall in the exclusive Men’s Room. From this sequestered spot, I heard three pro golfers enter the room to use the latrines. I knew their voices. You wouldn’t know them now, but these men were at that time revered in the entire world. I was excited, anticipating hearing from my private perch their words of wisdom. I recall it like it was yesterday. In three minutes my admiration for them went from 100 to zero. I was shocked and disappointed by their language. I wasn’t judging their words. I was seeing their hearts, and I felt deceived. Dads, your kids know your heart. May it be they are proud of it, because one day theirs will be like it.
Then there’s Martin Luther and James McCord
The great Christian leader, Martin Luther, at times was known to use coarse language — that is, until he married Katherine von Bora. Katy, by his side, didn’t hesitate to reprimand him publicly at a vulgar word. And I’ve never heard objection to Rhett Butler’s use of the d-word nor of Dr. McCord’s use of the same when as President of Princeton Seminary and reflecting on I Corinthians 4:6 would wisely instruct his students to: Be a fool for Christ but not a damn fool. Hopefully, I’ve, herein, not been that latter kind of fool.