40 Days of Giving Up: Day Nine - Cussing

Cussing might be like a cloud that looks like an explosion

Giving up cussing might seem more like a resolution (more fitting to NewYear's than Lent) but really, I have to admit, I rather enjoy letting out a good &*#&*#@ now and then, and a real blue streak like &%$#@! *&^%*# and ^%&$$ is delightfully satisfying not to say wonderfully like taking the lid off a pressure cooker that is about to explode.  Sometimes you just can't express what you mean without a good four-letter word now and then.  I confess: cussing is a guilty pleasure.

So recognizing that cussing is a guilty pleasure makes it well-suited to a lenten sacrifice.  A resolution is a vow to improve oneself.  Giving up something during Lent is intended to cause one to be reflective and meditative and feel some pain or discomfort in order to bring oneself closer to God.  Giving up cussing would do that.  I am sure God gets tired of hearing &^%**$ and *##$%$@ during public addresses or on TV shows.  Cussing has become epidemic in modern American society,  That aside, it still feels good at times and so giving it up during Lent is good spiritual practice.  It is also good for the spirit itself.

Well, an educated and sophisticated person can I suppose.  The meaning behind the cuss can be let out in more appropriate ways with some lovely ten-dollar words one acquires through a good study of the English language.  One needs only to turn to Shakespeare to find some very effective and devastating turns of phrases that would turn any grandmother's ear red.  But I digress.

I shall give up cussing here on in, at least during Lent.  It will be a sacrifice for sure.  Like, as I was blogging about yesterday with the giving up of impatience.  While driving, a good cuss, ^&$$$#%, alleviates the pressure of waiting needlessly at the stoplight when then is no traffic or the railroad crossing when there is no train.  It feels good.  So during this season of inner examination I shall refrain from the minor and the major cuss as much as possible and doing penance of some kind when I slip.  It will be maybe one of the most interesting and enlightening exercises during Lent I could do.

And who know?  Maybe I won't need the swear words after Lent.  My sacrifice would then become a legitimate resolution for the rest of the year and certainly cut down of my soap budget thereafter.

Day Nine: Give up cussing.  Amen.   Now there's a word I could use more often!

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