One time, back in my full-time musician days, as my band set up to play for an evening crowd in Denver, I made a good, clean humor pun about something. I don”t even remember what it was. But a guy, who helped set up the gear said, “Ooh, a pun! Those are the lowest form of humor.”
I immediately replied, “I suppose if you leave out dirty words and vulgar jokes about women, different races or ethnic groups, body parts, and bathroom humor…maybe you have a point.”
He didn’t have a witty comeback.
And I wondered how clean puns and good humor could ever be considered “low.”
The dictionary describes wholesome like this: conducive to or suggestive of good health and physical well-being: the food is plentiful and very wholesome. OR conducive to or promoting moral well-being: good wholesome fun.
So, what’s wrong with a preference for wholesome words over profanity and vulgarity?
The short answer is “Nothing”.
Think about it. There are grocery store chains based on wholesome foods. And most everybody would agree it’s better to have wholesome good health and physical well-being. But people get in battle mode mighty fast when it comes to requests or suggestions for good, clean humor. Weird.
Why do you suppose most people don’t mind being told what foods are good but hate being told what words and ideas are good? It’s difficult to even get a consensus on what “good” is anymore. These days, it’s whatever is right in your own mind. Trouble with that is a lot of people have a lot of dastardly things in their own minds.
You can’t go wrong with wholesome words.
Here’s something you can take and/or try with a grain of Celtic sea salt. Look up a word (or two or three) that you don’t know the meaning to. And discover what they mean and where they originated.
Then, see what kind of ideas pop into your head. Because it’s almost guaranteed that ideas WILL pop into your head. And if something less wholesome pops up for some reason today, focus more on your new ideas. When you do this on a regular basis, watch out. Because you might become an idea person.
And the better your ideas the easier is to rise above the dirty jokes and curse words. In fact, don’t be surprised to find you no longer need them at all. Because ideas power up your potential. It’s logical. Because your brain runs on the power of God’s love.
Try it today. What have you got to lose, besides bad taste?
Here are some words I shared, a few years back, to get kids interested in ideas and writing…
Open Your Head
Open your head.
Pour words right in.
Then shake your head
And let ’em spin.
They’ll bubble up
Like polka dots
Into some bright
And bouncing thoughts.
Just let them float,
And let them grow.
When they’re just right,
You’ll let them go
Live on a page
Where they’ll be read
And poured into
Another head. © 2013 TF
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