In the beginning was the Word   John 1:1

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable

in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer Psalm 19:14

            I love words because I love life.  I find them in novels, stories, poems, drama and, of course, in speaking with others.  And, in the ultimate, the Word of God.

            Our lives are a bombardment of words: television, radio, cell phones, texting, twittering, e-mail, movies, and in all of this jumble of words and sounds, we seem to have less and less respect for what constitutes real communication, choosing words less carefully than we do our clothing in the morning.  We forget that the impression that our words make is more forceful, more efficacious, more eternal than whether we wear a red sweater or a blue one on Wednesday.  Familiarity, in effect, breeds insensitivity.

            But, because we use so many of them, we often become desensitized to the meanings of the words we speak.  Sexual connotations get lost as children imitate others and repeat phrases that bring blush to the cheeks of those who are familiar with their original meanings.  A friend once told me, “Swearing is an uneducated person’s way of expressing his frustration.”  While I agree in part, I also understand that people don’t always reserve those words for frustration. In the mistaken idealism that equates bathroom and sexual slang with maturity, people often establish habits that handicap them for life — put them in a class that suggests less than adequate education and training. They become a way of life that denies sensitivity to others — machismo, if you please.  Unfortunately, a lot of those words find their way into the conversations on our own campus. “Adult language” should mean the ability to use language that edifies and encourages others, not ones that have to be bleeped on the media.