The following was written in my Day One journal this evening.
I wonder what actions actually deserve a verbal response, or any sort of reply at all. For instance, a few moments ago, mom said "Okay" aloud after I left the room. I was going to reply with "There's no need to verbalize your thoughts", but that seemed unnecessary. I really do wonder now: what words are necessary and what aren't?
This all began earlier this evening — an hour or so ago — when I walked by a neighbor's home to hear a middle school student exclaim the s-word. I thought to myself, "How sad is this that such a young person should already be using profanity?" I then moved on to thinking about why I ever say "darn" or "drat". It ended up being for the same reason as everyone else, likely.
I've come to the conclusion that no one really needs to swear. In fact, profanity is unnecessary and there is one thing to replace it with: silence, or thoughts to one's self. We don't need to say exactly what we're thinking all the time. Why do we feel so compelled to fill the void with words that are unneeded? I don't care what they are — profanity was a mere example of daily word abuse.
That's just a thought. Silence is still golden.