Saturday, January 22, 2011

Eff that shise man

I find myself saying "eff" and "shise" around my friends now. The habit of not swearing around my daughter has infected my non-daughter life. I notice that my ability to express myself is severely limited. (Let's face it, there are cases where only the word "fuck" can truly convey the logic and reason of your argument.)

I said "shise" today in front of my daughter who immediately said "shise, shise, shise, shise!!!". I thought to myself, success!! I expressed myself without dragging my daughter down into the depths of the culturally unacceptable. Call it a win.

Or is it? Barring some intervention from a god I don't believe exists, language is a human construct. We set the meaning of our words. So if "shise" means "shit" to me and my daughter learns it is used when brown stuff comes from our butts or when daddy stubs his toe, what does it matter that I replaced the t with an se? (Oh the irony: I just told her she can't eat cookie crumbs off the coffee shop floor and she yelled "crap"!)  If the meaning is what counts, shise is as good as shit.
I would argue that the same applies to morality. We set the meaning of our morals.  The subtle redefining of the meaning of death in abortion, suicide, death penalty, war, etc. is shise.  Eff that shise man.



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