A reader asks Matt why he does not shy away from four-letter words.  Matt responds:

Seeing as I could never get in or out of school, the way I express myself is probably something I became prone to in my early upbringing on the streets of the South Side of Chicago.

What it all comes down to is my perception of language and the appropriate or inappropriate explanation of what I really feel.  If you never use a four-letter word, it’s like a pastel painting.  It’s so nice and harmonious, it makes you feel wonderful and in touch with the great above and the great beyond; it’s so in tune with the pabulum of life:  a nice, smiling, vibrant, pink-cheeked baby.  Till you open the diaper.  Then you begin to see the reality of life.  There’s always a little shit somewhere.  So I guess we just have to live with it.  We don’t have to like it, but nonetheless, it’s there.  Probably all is not well in Shangri-La.

So for me, what people call profanity is my slap in the face to myself and others, a wake-up call to the reality of being a human being.  It may offend some people, but so be it.  My life on earth isn’t to make everybody happy, but to point out my own fallacies and my own realities.  Could I learn to speak only in milk and honey?  I don’t know if you could teach an old dog new tricks.  I do know that this old dog is happy with his run.  I don’t need a leash.

Matt