Fuck

       Fuck.
       I love that word. For so many reasons.
       In this moment, I love it because it made me smile and inspired me to write, and I haven’t written much in a while. So I’m going with whatever moves me at a time when I’m feeling like a ton of dead weight. I’ll play with fire, because I need the light right now.
       Fuck is a powerful word. So powerful, in fact, that its overuse actually diminishes its effectiveness. Used sparingly, peppering your vocabulary with it, is much more effective than littering your speech with the word. Like a bold spice, a little on your food does a lot for the flavor, while too much and you have to spit it out.
       That said, there are cases when the purposeful overuse of the word is very effective, if just for the sake of humor. “Fuck you, you Fuckin’ Fuck” is the phrase that comes to mind.
       To some, the word is unacceptable, no matter what the context. To others, it’s okay in speech, but not in writing. Others will not write the word, but strongly infer it by throwing in an asterisk where the “u” would be, or abbreviate it by using “f’ing”. To each his, or her, own.
       The fact that the word fuck can be used as nearly any form of speech, from personal pronoun to dangling participle, is a a big part of its appeal to those of us who use the word freely. Fuck is fuckin’ versatile.
       It’s not lost on me that, in its original form, the word refers to the rather beautiful act of sex. And thus, like virtually all things in this and many other cultures that refer to sex, there is a stigma, and lots of hang ups, attached to it. For me, The word “kill” is much more repulsive than the word “fuck”, but the word “kill” is perfectly acceptable in any and all contexts. I’m not suggesting that we be as free as using the word “fuck” as we are with the word “kill”, because, as I said, fuck is better used as a spice rather than a main course. I’m just illustrating the point that the connotation or suggestion of violence is much more acceptable to us than the connotation or suggestion of sex.
       The sound of the word fuck is aggressive, because it’s one syllable, and ends with the “K” sound. That aggression is part of the word’s appeal, and part of its problem. It’s almost impossible to use the word and sound tender and soft. Even if you whisper into your lover’s ear, as you're nibbling on it, while you gently make love to her, “I fuckin’ love the way you taste, baby”, there’s going to be just a hint of aggression there. That’s not a bad thing. There are times when you want to be completely tender and gentle, and there are times when you want to be tender and gentle with just a smidgen of an edge in there. The word fuck, placed properly in the structure of your phrasing, and not emphasized, but just said matter of factly, can achieve that. Again, a versatile word.
       So here’s to a wonderful word; a word that I will continue to use and appreciate, in all its expressive glory. A word that gets a bad rap. A word that helped me, this morning, do something I love to do, but that I sometimes have trouble getting out of my own way to do. And that’s to write. And to express.
       A word that gave me life over fifty years ago, and gave me life again this morning.
       Fuck. Where would I be without you?


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