When I first met my hubby at Occidental College, I used the word, "golly." We were walking along the quad, talking and I exclaimed, "golly." Later, he confessed that he was intrigued by a college girl that was in some sort-of time warp, saying, golly, on a college campus in 1976. Yea, this was not BYU, and he was not LDS.
I like to be unique.
I read a book, one of my funny favorite books, "Three Men in a Boat, To Say Nothing of The Dog." It was written in England, in 1889 by Jerome K. Jerome. No kidding, that is his name.
I was intrigued by the little exclamations common in that era -- things like:
oh, drat
oh, bother
it's jolly funny
fancy that
chucklehead
Of course, I've heard that words like Golly, Gee, Gosh, For Goodness Sakes, are euphemisms for what I am trying to avoid...the word God.
I don't use the word OMG. Being a faithful Mormon, the name of God is reserved for those things holy, with respect. We perform ordinances in the name of God, because it has efficacy; it has power.
So, I don't want to use it in vain -- and I interpret that to mean vain as in "a useless attempt, producing no results."
You use the name of God in vain when you swear -- it has no power, it's useless. "She made a vain attempt to clean up after the children." In other words, the cleaning up action, did not work.
I don't interpret vain as meaning, "in anger." The commandment, "do not take the name of God in vain," means for me, don't use his name unless you have the authority, or use it as a power word, a word that carries the power to produce results, such as a prayer.
In early times, Jewish scribes treated the name of God with great sanctity, and would not say it, because they believed it too holy to be used that way. Judaism believes His name should be used only in the Temple.
I like that.
YHVH is the name for God in Hebrew. Its pronunciation has been lost. In fact, in the Bible we have "I am" as a name for God.
Ok, so you need an exclamation, now and then--Drat? I dont want to use that awful word "fetch" which seems to have come out of Idaho/Mormonville. "What the heck?" --yea kind of a Utah/Mormon phrase.
In fact, these are signs--maybe she's a Mormon.
My mom never wanted us to use the word "crap." On rare occasions, as an adult, worn-out mom of 5, wife of struggling entrepreneur, I have used the word "crap."
I am very offended by the F word and hate to hear that one thrown around.
I loved "Bewitched" as a young girl, but never cared for the "oh my stars".
Oh, Drat, what shall I say?
Deila is the mom of five kids who looks for the deeper meaning of life’s joys and struggles on planet earth. She writes for Livestrong.com, LoopLane.com and produces interviews for The Mormon Women Project. You can find her blog in: Eve out of the Garden.