Holiness in Speech: Watch Your Mouth!

I'm sort of morbidly fascinated by the continual disintegration of proper speech in secular society. As someone who writes, I know how effective words can be and it's amazing to see what has become “acceptable” to say.

Words that would have made our mothers cringe in shame are now heard on the media regularly. Topics that were whispered about and subjects that were once adults only are no longer withheld from the ears and minds of children.

We no longer distinguish what is age appropriate and have lost all sense of delicacy and refinement. Kids know more than they need to sooner than they should. I feel so sorry for them.

I remember my neighbor's little girl came home crying one day after spending the afternoon at a friend's house. “Mommy!” said the little girl, “Rachel told me something I'm not supposed to know!” Sure enough, my neighbor's seven-year-old had gotten “the facts of life” from her little playmate next door. And where had the playmate gotten her information? Who knows? Somebody wasn't careful.

Our kids do need to know about certain things but it seems, due to extreme exposure of all things sexual, the age at which we need to inform them and warn them, gets lower all the time. The media doesn't hold back and they don't give a hoot who's listening. I remember being shocked at the sordid details that were revealed during the Bill Clinton scandal. It was risky putting on the radio while driving in your car. Who knew what would be announced while you were doing carpool.

I remember when “go to hell!” was the most dramatic insult ever and saying “damn” could get you in big trouble. Those were the days when a lot of things that should have been talked about weren't but it was also a time where elegant speech was considered the sign of an educated person and people took pride in their vocabularies. Bad language was a sign of a low I.Q. And gentlemen didn't use profanity in the presence of women.

There was also a “ladylike” way to talk and our grandmothers did it fluently.

Do you recall the concept of “the art of conversation”? Those with that talent got the most invitations to dinner parties. People who were well-informed, witty and refined were sought after as guests and were welcome everywhere.

The Torah talks about Loshen naki which means clean language. We learn tact from Hashem as, in Parshat Noach, He refers to animals who are not fit to eat as “animals who are  not pure” as opposed to “impure animals.” It's a nuance but it's significant.

Euphemisms are used by many sensitive parents to lessen the graphic images that proper nouns convey and all religious children know that a “nivul peh” literally a foul mouth, is something you better not have.

It's sad to see society become indifferent and desensitized. It makes me angry to see how little the media cares about society's child. Don't children deserve restraint, boundaries and purity? Must they have immorality and gutter language rammed down their throats? Must their sexuality be awakened and aroused before there is any reason for it? Must they know what they shouldn't know?

This is corruption, ugliness and perversion. It's child abuse and society will pay the price in even lower levels of behavior.

When parents raise their children in homes where they are kept away from the media and the people who indulge in it daily, their kids will have a fighting chance to remain pure, at least a little longer before they are exposed to the decadence we call civilization.

And if I have to hear some idiot cursing one more time, I am gonna get mad as heck! I might even tell him to go straight to Hades!

But don't tell my Mom.