occasional cuss word (most recently when my son took me rappelling and I have an intense fear of heights). I also worked around construction workers a couple of decades ago.

That said, I’ve become saddened by how freely people swear and how frequently they hit the more crass words. And in nearly every non church setting it seems. I don’t think our society is better for it.

I’m sitting in the waiting room at a doctor’s office (follow up visit after my wife’s double knee replacement a couple of weeks ago). There’s a guy upset about something and he’s using a barrage of language that would have made a sailor from 50 years ago blush. (Actually a sailor from then would probably have gotten in his face and told him not to speak that way around ladies).

When I hear people like that, my default is to discount what they are saying and to believe they’re being histrionic. It isn’t effective speech. It has the opposite impact.

The quickest way to get to me to tune you out and write you off is to start dropping f bombs.