How was I being a puritan? I used language throughout that demonstrated I was speaking from my own experience and sharing my own understanding.

All language points at people’s real experiences and understanding. And how I define a word, such as excitement and happiness, affects my understanding of what is possible. I thought they were synonyms for many years, growing up in a consumer capitalist culture, it’s kinda what I was fed by advertising and my environment. Eventually, I learned to delineate them. And found, in my own experience, they’re not the same.

If you use different words and have a different understanding of your lived experience, more power to you.