Especially The F-word

Just as words are annually eliminated from the dictionary due to some committee's opinion they are antiquated and no longer have relevance in our society's vocabulary...and just as ripped jeans, exposed bra straps and flip-flops seem to be the uniform of the day...and just as multi-tasking by carrying a cup of Starbucks and talking on a cell while shopping in a store is seen more and more... these familiar examples are signs of our 'casual times'.

What I truly can't abide, and N-E-V-E-R will, is the F-word. When did that word which was previously ostracized by decency for generations become accepted and common place? Was I asleep? In a cave? Without human contact for months? Years? Written in a novel or highlighted by graffiti on a railway car. Shouted in anger or spoken as an off-handed aside. It makes my skin crawl. It is vulgar, coarse and totally unnecessary. I hear it all the time now. So is this another result of the breaking down of social mores? Does the easing of culture and the peeled-off layers of manners introduce the crack which allows the slithering specter of crassness to infiltrate our daily existence?

I don't have that answer but if that's true I am happy to admit that I will remain very comfortably cloaked in my dinosaur skin, thank you very much. If I am out of touch so be it. Clinging to the hope that one day in this lifetime the art and skill of verbalizing an opinion or sitting down to pen a story or even perhaps by virtue of eavesdropping on a conversation at the next table will once again bear witness to the re-incorporation of the exceedingly vast reservoir of untapped descriptive vocabulary which is waiting in expectant silence for a summons to be useful once again. Wouldn't that just send a flash across the planet signaling the beginning of the end for this ugly four-letter word. (Wouldn't that be so cool? "I would love it", she smugly confesses.)

Well, perhaps one day you will be present to hear me say, "Please join me as I offer a toast!! We are gathered in this place to celebrate the expulsion of a word crafted by the attachment of four letters from our alphabet. Lift your glass and hail the void that exists in its place. May it never be filled!!" (And the crowd will go wild.....)