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I'm going to share something with you and you can chose to believe it or not. But this is complete honest truth-telling time. I have never in my life said a curse word. Never. And why should I feel compelled to? You can quote to me all you want about how the first amendment gives us the right to free speech. And that's true. You have the right to say every profanity under the book that you like. But you know what? It just sounds trashy. There is nothing more unpleasant than hearing a couple of ladies dropping f-bombs and calling the jerks in their lives SOBs.

Why do people feel the need to curse? Because it fully provides the effect of what they want to say? Because they cannot express how we are truly feeling without it? Because it just feels good to say? All it does is make people sound trashy. There aren't any "cool" points that go along with it. You don't sound any more intelligent. I think it sounds much more eloquent when people use euphemisms or quirky catchphrases they made up.

I am going to challenge you today, or really this week. It's Sunday, so you have a full week to try it out. If you are a full-on sailor mouth try limiting your curse words to 10 a day. If you are an occasional potty-mouth limit yourself to 5 a day. If you rarely utter a bad word every now and then, try going the whole week without saying one. For some of you, this could be the hardest thing you'll ever do. For others, you'll be pleased with how just a little bit of effort cleans up your mouth.

Why should I do that? I like cussing and I see nothing wrong with it.You may be thinking. Well there is no punishment that you're going to get if you don't attempt my challenge. No one is going to put a bar of soap in your mouth a la A Christmas Story. You won't be grounded. But there is a reward for doing it. If you take me up on my challenge, you will be one step closer to sounding like the classy lady I know you want to become!

We'll start with baby steps on this, there's no need to quit cold turkey. Want to make the challenge a bit more fun? Come up with one of those quirky catchphrases I mentioned earlier. "Fiddlesticks" and "Gee wiz" are personal favorites of mine.

One more thing along with this. I have also never said anything but "Oh My Gosh" for every OMG moment. Maybe you don't believe in God, but the third commandment states to not say the Lord's name in vain. This is one of the easier ones to abide by. Just be cautious of what you say. It's not difficult to turn that "D" into a "SH." So try to add this to the week's challenge. Trying saying Oh My Gosh instead of putting God's name in vain. You'll be sounding like a lady in no time.

Just remember: A clean mouth is a classy mouth.
Stay Classy-
L