Out of the gutter.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

-- Oscar Wilde

The following is a conversation I've had several times in the past week or so...

ME: "Gosh! W-T-H!"
OTHER: "WTH? Ha ha... Like WTF?"
ME: "Yeah, I'm trying to clean it up a little..."
OTHER: "Clean it up? I didn't think it was that bad."
ME: "Well, doesn't WTF mean 'What the F---'? I mean, I might as well say..."
OTHER: "Oh come on, Darc... it doesn't necessarily mean..."
ME: "Of COURSE it does! What else would 'F' stand for?"
OTHER: "..."
ME: "Like I said, just trying to clean it up."

Okay, so maybe they're right. "WTF" isn't that bad. I agree completely. My beef isn't with "WTF". Honestly, I could care less about "damn" or "hell" and if someone spouts the occasional "freak" or "frick", I'm not about to bat an eyelash. Where I am concerned is with the casual attitude I've noticed among my peers/friends/co-workers/self in regards to the words we use and the topics we discuss on a daily basis. We talk about sex more than we talk about... well, most other things.

And now for the disclaimer: Farbeit from me to never have the occasional off-color conversation. It happens. We'd all be a little backward and naive if we didn't talk about taboo subjects every now and then. My point is this: It doesn't need to happen all the time. It doesn't even have to happen every day.

I am a firm believer in the mantra (cheesy as it may be) that our thoughts become our words, our words then become our actions, our actions lead to habits, habits show our character, and character determines our destiny. If, then, it all starts with our thoughts, and we're noticing that our words and actions are slipping, we need to first examine the things we're thinking about. What ideas are we entertaining? What is occupying our thinking time?

In other words, long before we say, "What have I done?" we ought to be saying, "What am I thinking?" Our thoughts are one of the few things in life that we DO have control over, and if the mantra proves true that our thoughts eventually lead to our destiny, we ought to take care of the problem in our heads before it manifests itself in action.


I think author Tony Hillerman said it well: "Thoughts, and words that spring from them, bend the individual's reality. To speak of death is to invite it. To think of sorrow is to produce it."

If this is true, the things we are thinking about are creating the very foundation of who we are. It is clearly a choice: We can fill up our lives with things that are good, and pure, and beautiful, or we can allow ourselves to be a product of the negative, the unnecessary, and the inappropriate.

And so I propose this challege: Clean it up. Class it up.

If we are more vigilant in the things we are thinking and talking about, we will be more sincere and pre-meditated in our actions. If we surround ourselves with beauty and allow it to fill us, there will not be room enough for anything unworthy of our attention.

"Nothing touches the soul, but leaves its impress. And thus, little by little, we are fashioned into all we have seen, and heard, known, and meditated. And if we learn to live with all that is fairest and purest and best, the love of it all will, in the end, become our life." -Elder David B. Haight