Words are Dangerous

For some reason yesterday I was thinking about the power of the spoken word, especially if spoken by a parent.  My wife and I were speaking with our son on the phone and a couple of times he used phrases that I know he got from me.  It caused me to reflect that at times I was not as circumspect as I should have been when my two kids were growing up.  As an infantry officer my work environment was not the most genteel and sometimes I brought that home with me.  I should have done better.  In reality though I can trace it back to my own parents who were both fairly high on the earthy scale when it came to salty language.  I can still clearly remember my mother making a statement to my sisters and I, all of us under ten years old, when she heard my father squealing the wheels of the car (he did that a lot) in a distant parking lot where he had gone to retrieve our car.  She stated, “Well, here comes John P. Madbastard!” I laughed so hard at the time and I still laugh every time I remember (I’m laughing right now).  So maybe it’s not such a bad thing, God knows we have enough political correctness as it is.  This remains one of my fondest memories of both my parents.  A little salt in the linguistic menu allows proper seasoning.  Infantry speak was probably a tad too far though, right off the jalapeno scale.