Isn’t the new snowfall on the blog cool? (Pun intended.) A blog member tipped me on to it. Now if we can only include a chilly north wind, a fireplace and a mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows, it’d be even cozier. 

Okay, so the orb submission contest is coming to an end so paw through your old pix or call forth your loved ones and ask them to pose! I have two orb videos that were submitted, one with an orb flying around a dog and the other where an orb is flying around a baby in a carseat. However, I don’t know who sent these. Can you email me your names? emedhus@gmail.com.

Also, everyone please submit ideas for future contests and prizes! I’d love to have your input!

Now for the real deal.

Me: I’ve heard that those who curse and swear are very honest. That means you’re really fucking honest, Erik! (Insert tee hee here)

Jamie lets out a boisterous laugh.

Me: Could you share more about that?

Jamie: I have never heard that before. That’s so awesome.

Me: Yep, they’re less inhibited and more emotionally honest.

Erik: Damn straight. Well I’ve been trying to tell people for a long time that just because it’s a nasty word—

Me: It doesn’t necessarily have the power of a negative emotional intent behind it.

Erik: Yeah.

Me: That’s what matters.

Erik: Yeah. Just because you don’t like hearing the words, you know, doesn’t mean that it’s coming at you with all of this nasty energy and that this person has nasty energy. That’s ridiculous, really. Like my mom just said: The intent behind it—

(Pause)

Jamie: I was just joking with Erik. My cousin’s husband, they call their little daughter, cute as a button, blue eyes, bald, they call her shit bird, and he says it so sweet. It’s really adorable. “Hey shit bird.”

Me: Oh, geez.

Jamie: Then he kisses all up on her. But at first, when I heard it I was like, ‘Oh my god! Don’t call your child shit bird!’

Jamie and I laugh.

Jamie: They just laugh, but just like Erik said, it’s really not the word itself. The word is written or said, of course, but it’s the power, the intent and the focus that you put behind it, you know, because for my cousin’s husband that was an endearment.

Me: Well you know it’s just a string of letters.

Jamie: String of letters.

Me: There you go.

Erik: Absolutely tell that writer that, yes, it’s much more fucking honest if you can use a bigger vocabulary.

Me: Why are they more emotionally honest? What’s up with that? What’s the connection between those who curse and the emotional honesty?

Erik: Oh, it’s because cursing is the seen as something that shouldn’t be done. It’s seen as not polite, and so when emotion kind of overrides that level of politeness you really say what you mean. You’re not looking for a boundary here. You’re looking to be heard, and so, boom, that’s what happens. I wish people could fucking do that everyday. We’re emotional beings; our biggest lesson is to be emotionally honest.

Me: Well, can’t you do that without cursing?

Erik: Absolutely, but—

Me: It’s not as fun!

Erik: Not as fun; it’s true! We’re so trained. We’re trained to identify these certain groups of words as just being unacceptable. So crude!

Me: And emotional honesty has nothing to do with words. It’s all emotion, right?

Erik: Correct.

Me: Okay.

Erik: Plus, I curse so that people don’t see me as some boring fucking stiff shirt Archangel Michael. Sorry Mike. I want everyone to see me as just Erik, a guy that likes to talk and teach shit and stuff. I want to be approachable.

Me: Obviously not for little old ladies who only drive on Sunday to church.