OK, so I admit it, she who is without curse words shouldn't throw stones.
But I can't help it.
Last week, I overheard a mother cursing-out her young daughter. The child was about eight. She looked forlorn, beaten-down. The mom was dropping the F-bomb, something about the girl's father. They were waiting for a bus and, as I passed by, Mommy screamed her curses loud enough for me, her innocent daughter, and the people in the next county to hear without straining. I didn't make eye contact with Mommy. I think she wanted attention, so I saw no evil, heard no evil, and walked on by.
Yesterday, in a store, surveying the shoe selection, I couldn't help but hear a young guy blabbing on his cell phone, dropping the F-note like it was the world's only noun and adjective. He was with another guy and they were following a woman whom I assumed was their mother. The posse drew closer to me and sonny-boy continued his loudmouthed diatribe, F-this and F-that. I was mad as heck and couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, HEY, do you mind?" I said sternly, directing my words to him but looking at the mom as if to infer, "Can't you make your grown son behave civilly in public?" She just nudged her progeny along and gave me a dazed "whaddayagonnado?" look.
As I already admitted, I can curse like a truck driver who used to be a sailor. But, hopefully, I do it with people whom I trust and in the privacy of our own conversations. I live next to a grade school and I often hear loud cursing from the playground during recess. But what do you expect? If you are a child and your F-ing mother is screaming on a street corner about your F-ing father in front of F-ing strangers, you will do the same. Frankly, I think it's a doggone shame. And I'm going to make a resolution: the next time a curse word starts to spill out of my big mouth, I'm gonna make a real effort to replace it with something more original. F-ing A.