Use This Line
Kids are just get worse and worse every year. And the rage that we find on the road is just intolerable. You should hear the way that my son talks. I just don’t go to movies or listen to TV anymore; the language is out of hand. And do you believe those religious weirdoes? First thing you know we will all be talking like shock jocks, having gay marriages, and, God forbid, we could have a pagan devil worshipper for president. We have to draw the line somewhere.
But where do we draw the line?
I was talking with my niece Janice last spring as she came to visit from California. She was totally devastated because her husband’s mother, who has Alzheimer, had taken to swearing like a sailor. As Janice said, you would not believe that this sweet, religious woman even if she were totally insane, would ever use THAT kind of language.
Is swearing just bad manners? Is it a lack of education? Is it mental illness? Is it a constitutional right? Is it an affront to good and moral people?
What makes one word good and one word bad? What makes one behavior acceptable and another unacceptable? What makes one love good and another evil? Or is it a hard-wired behavior of the brain?
Perhaps the line we draw and the one that we use is a line drawn in the sand. The sands shift as time and knowledge shifts. Thus our line of acceptable versus unacceptable must also shift as we gain more knowledge, more wisdom, more tolerance and greater scientific, spiritual and social understanding.
What is verboten today will be forgotten tomorrow because the line that we use is grey with various shades of black and white blending and shifting and moving and creating a kaleidoscope of diversity in recognition.
As for me the line that I choose to use is do what thy will as long thy do no harm to self or others.
Afterward: Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20curs.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
Born Gay: How Biology May Drive Orientation
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002340883_gayscience19m.html
Some Theories on the Origination of Religion
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_theory1.htm
But where do we draw the line?
I was talking with my niece Janice last spring as she came to visit from California. She was totally devastated because her husband’s mother, who has Alzheimer, had taken to swearing like a sailor. As Janice said, you would not believe that this sweet, religious woman even if she were totally insane, would ever use THAT kind of language.
Is swearing just bad manners? Is it a lack of education? Is it mental illness? Is it a constitutional right? Is it an affront to good and moral people?
What makes one word good and one word bad? What makes one behavior acceptable and another unacceptable? What makes one love good and another evil? Or is it a hard-wired behavior of the brain?
Perhaps the line we draw and the one that we use is a line drawn in the sand. The sands shift as time and knowledge shifts. Thus our line of acceptable versus unacceptable must also shift as we gain more knowledge, more wisdom, more tolerance and greater scientific, spiritual and social understanding.
What is verboten today will be forgotten tomorrow because the line that we use is grey with various shades of black and white blending and shifting and moving and creating a kaleidoscope of diversity in recognition.
As for me the line that I choose to use is do what thy will as long thy do no harm to self or others.
Afterward: Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20curs.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
Born Gay: How Biology May Drive Orientation
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002340883_gayscience19m.html
Some Theories on the Origination of Religion
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_theory1.htm
posted by Myriam Maytorena | 9:34 AM
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