Rebecca’s recent comment was a bracing reminder of how often I’ve meant to write about the evils of chewing gum, and how none of you should EVER EVER EVER be caught chewing while on the job.
There is no way to chew gum in public that does not instantly lower your perceived IQ about 100 points, and make you look like you’re just a Dang Varmint Who Don’t Care ‘Bout Nothing.
Seriously. It’s distracting and wildly inappropriate for anyone who places a high value on spoken communication. If you must chew gum for breath reasons, acknowledge that you are chewing it and make your apologies for its presence in your chawing face. Then get rid of it as soon as you can.
Don’t make me come up to you with an outstretched, cupped palm and say, “Spit it out.” I’m a former high school English teacher, you know. I’ve done it before and I can do it again.
Photo courtesy of Global Virtual Classroom.
As I look out over my congregation on any given Sunday…a number of the parents are chewing gum! I just shake my head.
The thought of seeing a therapist who is chewing gum is, well, unbearable. A minister chewing gum while working (unless alone) is more than unbearable.
As a singer in my prior life, I often would perform with gum in my mouth to ensure that I had saliva flowing (sometimes nerves would dry out my mouth) since you can’t always take a swig of water. Occasionally (very occasionally) I will still do this. But you can easily put a small piece of gum in your mouth in private and then stick it in the corner of your mouth out of the way so that no one knows it’s there. As soon as the occasion is over it gets spit out in private.
I agree but urge you to include a pregnancy exemption if the preggo a) acknowledges the gum-chewing, and b) does what Amy suggests about tucking it in the back of the mouth. I would not have survived preaching through the constant nausea of my first trimester without gum.
Otherwise, I agree and rarely chew it, and then usually if I’ve run out of mints between lunch and a visit.
I am working on a show right now with an actor who tucks a little piece of gum into his mouth for breath freshening and doesn’t chew it. He smiled the other night and I was startled to see this big piece of “WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?” sticking to his gum. I couldn’t stop cracking up once he told me what it was. I thought it was modeling clay or something.
Yes, pregnant ladies with upset tums get to do anything they want to quell the nausea.
IWhen I need something to sweeten my breath or keep my throat moist, I get a pack of those tic-tac mints, and keep one under my tongue. They’re small enough stay there and not interfere with speech. I have done two-hour-long reader’s theatre performances where those little tictacs were all that stood between me and a terrible dry tickle in the second act!
I just *knew* you were a teacher! 🙂
(PS – ex high school English teacher here too…)
OMG! I always thought LiturgyGeek was a man!
With you on the gum thing, PB. It’s disgusting.
Hahaha! I’m curious how that came about. Is my written style masculine? 🙂
Tonight. In the Service of the Living Tradition. On the stage. Gum chewing. I kid you not. A fellow Preliminary Fellowshipper (hmmm, what kind of title is that?) was chewing gum. Not good. However, he was wearing a tie under his robe so he gets points for that. PB, you would have been fairly appalled at the level of clerical garb tonight, including rumpled pants, jeans, sports sandals, etc. It is crazy hot here in PHX so I think we are allowed some leeway, but you would have had some things to say about it I’m sure (so apparently I’m saying them on your behalf.) Missing you here at GA….
I have to do “gum check” on the acolytes EVERY SUNDAY MORNING. These kids have been serving on the altar for (in some cases) six or seven years, and yet they show up chomping away like barnyard animals. At this point I’ve got the cupped palm gesture as a nervous tic…:)