January 11: Cussing and the Himalayas

Bad habits are... well, bad. But, we all have them. They can range from minor things like biting your nails or grinding your teeth to more serious, and often health-affecting, things like smoking or excessive drinking. I myself have several habits I'd like to break, some perhaps vices. So, when I awoke the morning of January 11, I decided I would attempt to consciously challenge one of my habits head-on: swearing. Now, most of us have a habit of throwing out the occasional "dammit" every now then, which is fine; I'm certainly not judging. And, I'm not saying I walk around firing off the language like Andrew "Dice" Clay (this clip is just a sample of what I mean by that - WARNING! Contains explicit language). But, I readily admit, I can occasionally let loose with other selections from time-to-time that extend beyond the widely-accepted "dammit". I'm not talking about evil or malicious language that you'd find in an Oliver Stone movie (little known fact, he actually wrote the screenplay for "Scarface"), but the more common "ass" and similar shi...., shtuff like that. And, with young children around, absorbing every word that leaves my lips, that can be a problem. Especially when, just recently, my daughter used the phrase "What the hell?" and my son told me someone was an "ass". Nice, huh? I know, I know, they're just words. However, unfortunately, society does not readily accept such language from the mouth of babes and, really, neither do I - especially my own kids. So, I committed to completely refraining from any and all said language for one 24-hour period. How did it go you might ask? Well, about an hour into the morning, as the kids were resisting getting themselves dressed and ready to depart for school, my streak came to an abrupt end as I muttered to myself, under my breath thankfully, "why the hell won't they get ready?" Minor, yes. But still a violation of the swearless oath I undertook for the day. So, while I tried something new, I failed miserably; which, in hindsight I guess is not the goal here, but I still feel bad about it. So, later in the evening, in an effort to successfully try something new, I sampled the Himalayan Rock Salt my wife picked up at Trader Joe's over the weekend. Hey, you always gotta have a fallback plan.