Potty Mouths and Yogis

(I hesitate to post this . . . but here it goes).

My father swears a lot. Apparently when I was maybe three years old, my family was driving in the car when suddenly my Dad put on the brakes. From the backseat you could hear me say, “Fuuccckkk!” So not only did I learn the words, but the proper context in which to use them! You’d think that with such an early start I would have become a regular user of swear words, but since my Dad usually used them when he was frustrated or angry, I made negative associations with them early on. That’s not to say I never swear. Swearing can release stress and ease pain, so I swear when I need to. And like my Dad, my go-to swear starts with the letter “F.” Heck, sometimes I even swear when I “screw up” in a yoga pose, granted I swear a lot more when I screw up in ultimate Frisbee (which, let’s be honest, is most of the time).

Everyone who is calm and sensible is insane. ~ Rumi

I’m bringing this up because the other day a yoga teacher was talking about yoga teachers and how yoga makes you better. I can’t remember how swearing came into play, but basically it was said that you wouldn’t swear. I thought, “Nooooo, please tell me you didn’t just say that!” Whenever I hear things like that it makes me feel embarrassed to associate myself with yoga. So I sheepishly said, “Well, I dunno, I still swear sometimes. And I want my teachers to be normal.” I’ve never liked putting people on holy pedestals; I just wait for them fall off. And I know it’s very "unyogic" to judge people, but when I hear another “yoga person” talk in a whispery voice with their head tilted to the side and their hands in Namaste while they talk to me about how great everything is and nice it is and happy they are to be here, it's so cliche that it makes me . . . well . . .  it makes me want to punch myself in the face. That’s how bad it is, it makes me want to cause myself bodily harm. Luckily, I don’t meet too many of these types.

All this may seem weird coming from someone who is often described as sweet and cute, but when you’re a pint-sized human with porcelain skin, you can’t do much about it. In fact, I’m told I’m even cuter when I swear, so that method doesn’t work.

A quick browse through the yoga blogosphere and you’ll discover that yogis are just as bitchy, catty, and petty as the rest of us rest can be. And sometimes they swear.

Did you know I helped to publish a humourous book about shit! I know, it's shocking, but I’m just trying to make the world a better place. We showed it to a somewhat conservative Catholic friend of ours who has been dealing with a dying brother, and she laughed so hard, literally kicking her feet up in the air. She said she needed that. So you see, we’ve really done a service. The book was written by John Dunsworth, a well-known Canadian actor for his role in "The Trailer Park Boys".

So I leave you with this thought:

If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth.

~ Tim O’Brien

Various clips from TPB--it's funny, I swear, but I should mention that the book is far more literary and sophisticated that what you see here: