As the flurry of fucks blurted out this morning into Charmaine's ears, I declared to her that the ban on profanity was over. "I'm fucking done!"
Now, this evening, 8 hours later, I truly feel like a failure. I've got less than 7 days left. It's only words for monkey's sake!
Why can't I simply stop the words? I can (not without some restraint) resist the fizzy drink boozing, the enticing cupcakes and the lure of lattes, but I can't seem to capture that fucking word before it fuh fuh fu fucking flies out of my trap.
Motor Up that Emotion
It turns out it's my brain's fault. According to "How Stuff Works" swearing is a combo of speech and emotion. And not only that, it seems the emotional "limbic" brain, aside from being the place of memory, emotion and basic behavior, it is also the part of the brain that primates use to vocalize. It's said that monkey's also swear.I guess I'm an emotional monkey with no self control. So should I give in to the idea of failure? I'm not sure. But after a few explicatives today and the nightfall of regret, I believe I'm back on the monkey wagon. Let's see if I can prevent those fu fu fuuuu fudging words from forming and flying between now and Friday, February 1st.
Until Friday, Blame the Brits
According to a British study (I'm not particularly fond of the Brits this week - no offense Chrissie) "Swearing on the job can reduce stress and boost employee morale."
Could it be that all I really wanted to do with my swearing is to reduce stress and boost morale? Perhaps not. Truth is, one reason I chose "no swearing" for the inkythinky fast was specifically because I sensed my language was inappropriate for the office. I wanted to tone it down a bit.
My ears have become more sensitive to profanity in the past month, and I have to say, in the workplace, it's generally NOT a good idea to swear. In intimate conversations, of course a good peppering of shit goddamn serve the purpose, but in meetings, it's awkward. I've felt myself twinge a bit when people have said "shit" or "fuck" as we sit around the table. We'll see what happens after February 1. Will I be more cautious? Refrain? Or will I simply be a silly monkey?
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2 comments:
that's why I am fucking self employed.
i used to be an overuser of "fuck" i think it was from spending so much time in the company of men and not enough in the company of women. really. then i found people around me at work were not using it 5 times a day like me and i worked really hard to mostly remove it from my vocabulary. just that one word. it sort of made me aware and slowy the potty mouth found an outlet only outside of work. like you said, it is a bit about linguistic laziness. for me starting with just that one really harsh word worked....
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