rhymes with puck...

Like an alcoholic, I was a denier. I denied my overuse of curse words. I thought I could quit anytime and with minimal effort. Turns out, it's not that simple. Once certain words have come into your vocabulary, it is hard to get them out without a dedicated effort.

This is day 8 of lent, and I've cursed five times. I don't need to curse, and I've cut out consciously selecting curse words... but five have snuck in. I did need to be more specific about what I am considering a curse word, because I'm so heavily monitoring my verbal output I'm cringing as I let out less offensive words. I decided that I'm allowing crap, darn, jerk and idiot. And in conversation I allowed myself to use "bitch" because it was a direct quote (although this is hardly the most offensive word). I think I'll allow hell also... it's a place, right? .

Interestingly, my problem words aren't the majority of George Carlin's seven dirty words-- I only use three (but I don't use the p word unless someone has angered me and I'm stating emphatically that they've really, er, ticked me off)... but in the seven words/phrases you can't say on tv, I do use three of them regularly (and all three were the ones I let slip -- calling someone a gluteus-maximus hole, dropping an F bomb, and hyperbole'd a fecal synonym). I have some work to do. In addition to the seven, I added the longer homonym of dam, the opposite of blow and another term for female dog.

Does this make me a Lenten promise breaker? Ultimately, it would be nice to make this a lifetime promise because I don't need to use these ugly words, so I have no problem extending my Lenten time a day for every mistake. I do, however, recognize the utility of these words as pain relief, so I think the next time I stub my toe (outside of Lent) I'll let one out, but only because it's free and satisfying pain relief...