Words And Music

Mark Twain had a bad habit of spicing his conversation with profanity. Twain’s wife, a delicate, refined woman, often became very upset by his rough language. She tried, in many ways, to cure him of the habit — always unsuccessfully, of course. On one occasion she tried a shock technique. When Twain arrived home from a trip, he was greeted at the door with a string of profanity from his wife. From the lips of that delicate, refined woman, he heard everything he had ever said, and more. Twain stood quietly, listening, until she had finished. Then he said, “My dear, you have the words, but not the music.”

This, I fear, is what often happens to us in our…