Post office

Upon entering the post office, I naturally regarded everything as mundane and usual.

This mindset I find is a particularly good angle of perception, as even the slightest alteration to an otherwise subconscious preconception, can be permeated in an instance, with the mere fluttering of an eyelid.

The mouth in front belongs to a man of about 65 years. Words spurt out like a swarm of flies eager to land on food or shit. 

"an' shi kept'n fuckin' shuvin', no me, shi wa fuckin' shuvin."

I assumed the role of intent observer as the man relived his experience of being shoved by a woman, through a mimicry that suggested this past confrontation was unfolding in the present.

His mouth continued to move faster than my brain could process words, when suddenly the man erupted into chorus of Starman, by David Bowie. Needless to say I was surprised, and incredibly awestruck.

After this stunning rendition, the man reverted to his indignant demeanor, swearing profusely about the woman who pushed him.

According to studies, the use of profanities in everyday language emanates from the right hemisphere of the cerebral cortex. The spontaneous renditions of songs by David Bowie I assume still baffle scientists.

The right hemisphere is the 'artist', associated with creativity, spatial navigation and emotive responses from certain stimuli, whereas the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex is the 'scientist', associated with pragmatics, problem solving and analysis, and language.

An example of the prevalence of swearing as a deep rooted sign of emotion comes from the example of a patient who had the entire left hemisphere of his brain removed because of cancer. The patient could not construct syntactic sentences but did blurt out swear words. (much like the symptoms of Tourette disorder)

This gave me food for thought. Is pragmatic, syntactic language couched in an inherent dishonesty, where all it requires to present an unfettered emotion is a fucking arse bashingly, tit shiningly, shittingly good swear word?