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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Coarseness and Discourse

I just came across Christian musician Steve Camp's blog. It's very well designed (putting my Blogspot blog to shame).

In this blog, in this post, he expresses his opinion that "society in general has become very coarse. Foul language is part of every day speech. Subjects that were once too private and personal to mention, are now a matter of public discourse, talked about and joked about openly. Words and terms that no decent person would have once used in public are part of our common speech and are voiced in our schools to our children."

He's right about that, and as much as I wish that my record was spotless, I have to admit that I've occasionally let an "f bomb" fly. In my defense, I do not usually do this casually, the way that some people do. It's usually an expression of anger or frustration.

This morning, I experienced an episode of incontinence related to my health problems (specifically, a hernia which has not been properly treated for the past decade, due to financial difficulties and due to the fact that I only recently went on Medicaid). I was waiting for the paratransit van on which I have come to depend, thanks to the two strokes I had in 2011 and 2012. I started to realize that I should have relieved myself before leaving the apartment. I'd just barely made it inside when I began to defecate on myself. What a mess! I spent the next half hour or more cleaning up after myself. During this frustrating experience, I yelled that "f word" a few times.

I know that Jesus understands our infirmities. He knows that this is not a perfect world, and he knows that there are limits to our abilities in terms of always behaving like perfect little Christians. Still, I am making an effort to control my language. Profanity and obscenity do indeed coarsen our culture, just as Steve says in his blog.

Regarding my health, please pray for me, for endurance and more.

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