TV Guardian Tested and Approved

I have always stood out at work. I never went to work there intending to stand out (except maybe because I was a good worker but for nothing else). For a long time, I thought it was because I was one of the oldest employees there. Then too, I did manage to become a good worker and thought I stood out for that reason. Last night though, I came to a different conclusion.

Yesterday, as usual for Tuesdays, several movies were released to DVD. I was checking out one customer and he asked if I had seen both movies. One of the movies was named -- in TV Guardian speak -- Kick- tail. I told him I haven't seen this one, holding it up, but that I had seen that one, holding it up. He said, "You can say it." But I pretended not to hear him (so as not to make an issue of it) and kept on talking about the movie.

It's not that I think I'll go straight to the Devil's homeland if I use a curse word. But I definitely don't think I should be forced to in a work situation. And quite frankly, what is with all these curse word titles in movies now anyway?

About a month or two ago, the title female dog-Slap came out. We had to put that on our shelves where any six year old kid could read it. And it just so happens that the Kid section is right near the 'B' section of our new release wall. Umm. Hello.

Of course, several months ago, there was another that will forever be known to me as the one word title "Inglorious." The second part of that title referred to children who are fathered by someone not married to their mamas.

One of my first such challenges came in the form of movies 1 and 2 based on the tv series on some stupid man channel (so called because it sports half-naked women, beer chugging, and car chases with gun fight movies -- not anything a real man would necessarily want to watch). Those titles had to do with other names for donkeys, and I don't mean burro. I actually had a hard time disagreeing with those titles (obviously the writers would know what that was) but that is beside the point.

After last night, I realized that not cursing, even the occasional word, is probably what has always made me stand out there. Every other person who works there does as far as I know. Some of them prefer not to and it only comes out when they're mad, but it still happens. The closest I've ever gotten was a 'Dadgumit' or 'Fiddle.' There are others who are my age and there are others who are good workers. Those are still ways that I stand out but it is not the primary one.

What's more, while I have tried never to judge or condemn them when they do curse around me, or even to acknowledge that they did, they have all slowly come to tone it down considerably in my presence. And not just the workers. We have one regular customer who is 70 years old and called the Kick movie by the same thing I did in that second paragraph yesterday when speaking to me but by it's title when speaking with my coworker. I am just over half his age, yet he calls me by my name with a Ms. in front of it and respectfully edits his language around me.

As Christians, we are called to be different than the rest of the world -- to stand out for Christ. That's one easy way to do so. Not only do I stand out, others change their behavior around me. It's really kind of funny in a way because I wasn't even trying.