Cliché Mania: Profanity's Quagmire

I rather wish those cliché-mongers could alter their ways and revisit their paucity of expressing things with precision. To me, that would be a Christmas present unto themselves.

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(SALEM) - Earlier this week I attended a Men's Retreat held out at the Oregon Coast. Its aim was to explore ourselves in depth and where we were heading in retirement. We touched on our relationships with our parents, our spouses and siblings, and most of all, ourselves.

The nitty-gritty of our discussions remains pledged to confidentiality. Yet it seemed quite obvious that coping with adversity was a central theme. Life contains a myriad of challenges. Some we can tackle readily while others encounter sheer frustration. How we handle the latter bracket impacts our degree of competence and ultimately how we perceive ourselves. As the Christmas Season arrives, many of us are not at all serene.

More accurately, we are troubled.

How do we respond to roadblocks? Some are inclined to blame others. Still others focus on seeking alternatives. If a person sees himself as eternally stuck in a rut, the anger button often gets pushed, and pushed again.

Frustration fosters a sense of stagnancy. For some, that triggers profanity.

One can understand an occasional F-word slipping out of this frustration. But when it gets omni-recurrent, well, "Houston, we have a problem!" We've entered into a black-hole of darkness, barreling through apparent nothingness.

As a lifelong journalist, I am sensitive to the use of active language. Those who seem to be trapped into spouting constant profanity are tragic characters to me. When such persons are highly intelligent and have an abundant vocabulary for self-expression, it is sad to view this state of verbal retreat. The profane terms thus get repeated almost endlessly, losing their clarity and impact.

Cliché Mania is the result.

Perhaps their minds are full of feces as they refer to those whey resent as human anuses. Their shrunken minds tell others to fornicate at virtually every turn. Only their capacity to communicate is trapped in profanity.

I rather wish those cliché-mongers could alter their ways and revisit their paucity of expressing things with precision. To me, that would be a Christmas present unto themselves. That would be an ideal way to ring in the New Year!

NOTE: B. Lee Coyne began as a reporter for the NY Voice in 1963, and today edits The OFOR Forecaster, newsletter of the OR Fellowship of Reconciliation. He invites comments at notcoy@netzero.net.

B. Lee Coyne, a NYC native, blends three careers: Journalist, Counselor, Educator. His writings have appeared in newspapers and magazines on the East and West Coasts and the Southwest. He loves the art of the interview and has covered such persons as Dr. King's 1963 "Dream" speech and Sen. William

Proxmire as an advocate for the environment. A global traveller to some 30 countries aboard, he speaks Spanish semi-fluently and very rudimentary Russian, Tagalog, German, Arabic and Hebrew.

Lee's legacy here in Salem includes launching the Salem Peace Mosaic at the YMCA and doing a radio talk show for KMUZ/88.5 FM. It airs Mondays and highlights lives of proactive, productive senior citizens. He invites you to contact him at: notcoy@netzero.net.