Category Archives: A words

Audition

Audition: (n) an interview for a particular role or job as a singer, actor, dancer, or musician,

dictionary with letter A

  • The wonderful thing about new things is that they aren’t old.
  • The terrible thing about new things is that they have not proven that they work.

Such was the case many years ago when I had a music group and we were auditioning for a spot to do a series of high school concerts which would have given us a nice piece of finance in a time when such remuneration was unusual.

It was long before American Idol or The Voice–where people are thrust in front of millions of listeners and evaluated on their prowess.

This was two guys, sitting in a barn-like building, who were not much older than myself, deciding if our group would be a “right fit” for this particular opportunity.

Well, here was the problem:

  1. They didn’t know exactly what the position was going to be. Since nobody had done it before, there was no reference point.
  2. Neither one of them were musicians and confessed to this lacking by saying, “But we know what we like…”
  3. They were pretty people, so they were very concerned that other pretty people might be prettier to high school students, who were really tuning in to the prettiest possibilities.
  4. They were impatient. They wanted us to do one song.

So I decided to do a medley, which I could insist was only one song, but still include four or five pieces of tunes. It seemed like a brilliant idea. When we finished, they told us they “would get back to us.”

I should have known at that point that we had not passed muster. The reason most of us get dissappointed is that we maintain hope for things that we know deep in our heart are gone.

Two weeks later we got a letter from the company explaining that they thought we were a really great group–but not the “look” they desired.

Like everyone else on earth, I’ve done my share of auditions. I’ve won some of them and I have fallen on my face.

But honestly, most of the time it had little to do with my performance or presentation and much to do with how I was eyeballed.

Basically, it’s not an audition–it’s an eyedition.

 

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Audit

Audit: (n) an official inspection of an individual’s or organization’s accounts, typically by an independent body.

dictionary with letter A

I have eaten out of the pot and I have owned the pot. I must tell you–I prefer “eating and running.”

The responsibility that comes with finance–especially when it arrives in chunks–is both frightening and challenging to the fragile nature of the human soul.

When I had a lot of money, I felt compelled to communicate that prosperity to the world around me. The quickest way to do that is to buy things–and you can always justify these purchases by placing them under the banner of “improvements.”

But as you probably well know, the trouble with having worldly goods is that the world around you wants your goods.

  • They can plot to steal
  • They can draw up a business plan and try to get you to invest in it
  • Or on occasion, they can push the tax people in your direction for an audit

Yes, there was a time in my life, even though I was fastidious in my records, that I was nervous about an audit. Why?

Because what I don’t know can hurt me. And ignorance of some unknown tax is not considered a passable defense in the world of accountants.

I cannot tell you how relieved I was when about 5 years ago, I walked away from those responsibilities, bringing my life back to the simplicity of gas, food and lodging.

Now when I think of an audit, I get tickled.

Because rather than counting my bank accounts, houses or stocks and bonds, the bean counter would find himself only counting my beans.

 

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Audio-Visual

Audio-visual: (adj) using both sight and sound, typically in the form of slides or video and recorded speech or music.

dictionary with letter A

Today I am imagining a cave man or one of those early human beings–whatever you may call him or her–sitting by the fire, grunting out a story about a fascinating hunt-down of an angry mastodon.

Noticing that the audience has lost attention, he decides to add a drum beat and scrawl out in charcoal on a nearby series of smooth stones some pictures, to accentuate the thrill of his kill.

His audience is suddenly much more receptive.

Thus the beginning of audio-visual.

Nowadays, we wouldn’t even think about trying to tell a story or share an idea without the use of a sound track and flashing pictures on the wall to illustrate our points.

Matter of fact, anyone who would consider simply using the human voice to tout a message would be viewed as arcane, out of step or certainly old-fashioned.

But in a generation which is constantly being bombarded sensually, perhaps the best way to communicate new ideas is through sensory deprivation.

  • What happens if we take away every sense except the ears?
  • Or maybe we remove the other four senses and just leave the eyes?
  • What if, instead of launching a huge campaign for a new line of baked goods, we just release the smell of the delicious product into the air?

Even though I appreciate those who come to me at my concerts and ask me if I have AV material (which is shop talk for “audio-visual”) I have to tell you that imitating the antics of the monkey next to me does not make me a superior monkey.

Somewhere along the line you have to get the monkeys of the world interested in something other than flashing images of bananas.

I believe the next movement in advertising and communication will have to be relieving our senses of attack, and finding a way to simply tell our story by the fireside.

 

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Audience

Audience: (n) the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event, such as a play, movie, concert, or meeting.

dictionary with letter A

You may speculate that they are spectators, but the word “audience” literally means that they are there to listen.

As listeners, they are not compelled to feed your ego nor respond to your whim.

If the person sharing is not willing to communicate clearly, or provide a balance of entertainment and inspiration, then he should be prepared for the audience to take its ears elsewhere.

That’s a simple fact.

After many, many years of sharing, performing, presenting, or whatever word you prefer, in front of hundreds of thousands of human souls, I will tell you that I have never come across any gathering that did all the work for me.

Some are friendlier, and some are like a Wells Fargo safe which has to be cracked meticulously in order to find the treasures within.

With the introduction of YouTubes and Internet blogs, there are many fledgling artists who think that having ten thousand “likes” or a million hits is a passage to success.

It is not.

There are three things that tell you that you’ve reached your audience:

  1. Do they get quiet when they’re supposed to get quiet?

Noisy is easy. Getting people quiet is an art.

  1. Do they want more of what you have and are they willing to commit either their time or money to confirm that devotion?

It is a fickle day we live in. The 24-hour news cycle has turned the American attention span and the allegiance of the American audience into the actions of a housefly at a July 4th picnic.

  1. Are they leaving the performance, lecture or interaction a little different than when they came in?

America is desperately searching for answers, while simultaneously pretending that such data is unnecessary.

Solve a problem–save a soul.

It’s really that easy. 

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Audible

Audible: (adj) able to be heard

dictionary with letter A

Can you hear it?

Trust me, it’s there.

A whisper of reason

A breath of common sense

A wish that is being quietly mumbled from tentative lips

There are still people who believe in belief.

There are souls who lovingly pursue love.

And there are dreamers who are willing to share their dreams.

Yet noise can be alarming.

Screams and shouts often interrupt the prayers of the children.

How can we tune our ears to hear the good things in a world filled with the blaring sounds of insane conflict?

I don’t listen too much to the news.

I don’t stay in a room where bigotry is being proclaimed as truth.

I don’t hunt and peck with a gaggle of gossips.

In a world filled with bubbles, I have selected my enclosure.

It is sound-proof to the rattling of sabres and the insistence on war.

It has closed out a community of covetousness, which pleads for more, while ignoring what it already has.

It is an atmosphere where the natural melody of a human voice is preferred over the mechanical interpretation via an I-phone.

For after all, a “Book of Faces” does not provide a great body of proof.

You have to listen carefully.

You have to tune your spirit, like an excellent radio, to the frequency you wish to become the soundtrack of your life.

Truth is audible.

It’s just not very loud.

So if you feel overwhelmed by the volume, be prepared to be underwhelmed … by the content.

 

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Audacious

Audacious: (adj) showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.

dictionary with letter A

I am very curious exactly how many miles one would have to run with a stick before actually tripping, falling, having the pointed end of the stick lodging in the eye.

Yet we were led to believe that such careless running with loosely held wood would ultimately most certainly lead to blindness.

We were not raised to be risk-takers.

So rather than ending up with a generation of people who are careful planners, adept at common sense, we have an “earthful” of cautious, lazy folks who occasionally rebel by actually doing things that are dangerously risky.

If you continue to avoid activities which merely demand a certain amount of skill because you think they’re risky, you’ll eventually get fed up, go out and enter a jalopena-eating contest.

Somewhere along the line we have to teach our children that the pursuit of excellence does bump up against risky endeavors, but the power of planning and the presence of practice does enable us to run with a stick without gouging our eyeballs.

I have taken audacious risks all my life.

I will tell you this–simply writing a blog on the Internet is risky business. The possibility for obscurity, criticism or being stalked by a person with a manic disorder who doesn’t like to swallow pills is always prevalent.

But it will take some risks for us to avoid greater risks.

It will take the frightening thought of negotiation to keep us from negotiating another war.

It will take risky conversations about racism to eliminate dead young men in the street.

It will take brave souls insisting on the common humanity of men and women to bring about the true peaceful interaction which will prevent us from being constantly at each other’s throats.

What is worth the risk?

Any time we have the chance to advance the cause of peace, liberty and justice, it’s well worth getting up out of our easy chair and grabbing our baton (which is just a stick)… to start running. 

 

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Auction

Auction: (n) a public sale in which goods or property are sold to the highest bidder. dictionary with letter A

Honestly, I’ve only been to one auction.

I think. (Sometimes we make bold statements like “I’ve only been to one…” and then we’re contradicted by a friend or loved one who reminds us of previous encounters. But let me stick to my story.)

I was 11 years old.

My dad was a “jack of all trades” (as long as that trade was accounting.) He had his own loan company, which was moderately successful. He did tax forms during the season and every once in a while he was the accountant at auctions, taking care of the bids and the money.

At 11 years of age, I didn’t have the attention span of anything because I had not yet acquired an attention span.

So thinking it might be fun, I begged my dad to let me go with him to one of the auctions. He was reluctant, fearing he would have a droopy-shouldered, bored kid with him, but apparently was going through some sort of fatherly guilt over not spending enough time with me, so he agreed.

It was the most boring thing I have ever experienced–and honest to God, I have been in some boring experiences.

Here’s the truth: to enjoy an auction, you have to have money, be able to understand what the auctioneer is saying with his light-speed lip service, and have some interest in a bunch of crap which just might turn out to be valuable in some unexpected way.

As you look at that short list, you can see that an 11-year-old boy is shut out of the game.

I was literally underfoot, being stepped on four times by adults. I was stepped on because I was trying to lay down to take a nap, because I was sleepy from trying to listen.

My father’s face had that common blend of pity, fury, desperation and amusement that often accompanies any parent who ends up taking a child to the wrong place.

Finally he gave me $5 so that I could bid on one of the items from a toy chest which had been brought in for sale.

So I did.

It was actually two different toys–a huge bag of army men and a Slinky. Suddenly I became possessed, and needed to have both of them.

So I bid, trying to keep up with the auctioneer’s patter.

Unfortunately there was another kid bidding against me, and even though deep in my heart I believed he was not interested in the items, he was certainly intrigued over winning the game.

Finally I yelled at the auctioneer, “Five dollars!”

A chill went down my spine as he said, “Going once…going twice…”

And then, all of a sudden, my nemesis screamed out, “Five dollars and ten cents!”

I looked at my dad, hoping for another quarter. He looked away, as if the paternity test had proven him seedless.

I was beat out by a little punk who didn’t even want the toys.

I don’t like auctions.

Now you understand why.

 

 

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Auburn

Auburn: (adj) (chiefly of a person’s hair) of a reddish-brown color.dictionary with letter A

My granddaughter thinks I’m over-sensitive.

Whenever she giggles about being isolated and having jokes told about her red hair, being referred to as a “ginger,” she thinks it’s cool.

I don’t.

When I read today’s word, auburn, I thought about the fact that people who have that unique coloration in their hair, would now be lumped in with those considered red-heads, and therefore dubbed “gingers.”

Prejudice is sneaky.

In the “olden days,” when black people picked cotton, no respectable white person would walk up to people with brown skin and call them “dumb niggers.”

They probably just joked about their “nappy hair.” All good-natured, you know–which opened the door to mentioning that their “black friend” also had large nostrils.

All the observations were accompanied with chuckles and maybe even a slap on the back.

The individual with black skin was disarmed by the jocular nature of the interaction. And so, what started off as seemingly harmless bantering moved into segregation and eventually with one person being the slave of another.

I’m sure Adolph Hitler did not walk into his first meeting with the Gestapo and say, “We need to kill the Jews.”

He probably joked around and said, “Don’t they have funny hair, and a hooked nose?”

For I am of a mindset that once we begin to focus on one another’s physical differences, in no time at all we are expressing our superiority.

I don’t like the “ginger” movement.

It’s where all the bigots against blacks, Mexicans and Asians have run to hide–since those forms of prejudice are now unacceptable.

Why can’t we say she just has beautiful auburn hair instead of finding a derogatory way of expressing it … insisting it’s all in fun?

 

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Atypical

Atypical: (adj) not representative of a type, group, or class.

dictionary with letter A

  1. Think big
  2. Don’t let people push you around
  3. You are special
  4. Religion is a personal matter
  5. Follow your dreams
  6. We were all born a certain way

Any one of these statements spoken aloud in a gathering will get you immediate applause.

But I grew up with a little bird whispering in my ear, saying, “Does it work?” Not “is it popular, is it typical, is it in the flow of thinking,” but “does it work?”

Recently I wrote a book entitled “Within.” There are several things I wanted to accomplish with this book.

  • I wanted it to be human.
  • I wanted it to be easy to understand.
  • I wanted it to be short, to avoid boredom.
  • I wanted it to be logical–honoring history and forward thinking.

So the previous six statements immediately came to my mind, and as I considered the nature of human beings, our future on Planet Earth and how things have worked in the past, I realized that I was at odds with most of the contentions.

I am atypical.

Think big:

When it comes to thinking big, I realize that this often leads to an arrogance which is frustrated by the normal disappointment that comes when we are forced into a smaller role. Perhaps that is why a wise man once said that “faith is a tiny mustard seed.” When you begin small, growth is much more appreciated.

Don’t let people push you around.

It’s one of those statements that sound fabulous in your head until you realize that you are fostering the notion that “might makes right,” instead of “ingenious” having a chance of winning the day.

Truth is, people will push me around. But what happens next–how well I survive it–is contingent on my determination.

You are special.

This works if I think everybody is special.

Religion is a personal matter.

Actually, religion is useless, but my faith isn’t just personal. It’s intricate to my character and therefore, the supplier of my actions.

Follow your dreams.

Well, I guess it’s hard to argue with that one. But I like to celebrate every day instead of waiting for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

We are all born a certain way.

Honestly, I just don’t like feeling trapped by how I was born. The God I believe in gave me free will, and fully expects me to use it to better my circumstances.

When I finished writing “Within” and published it, it was atypical.

But now, as people are beginning to purchase it and read it, they are gaining the freedom to be human, instead of acting like they’re “little gods,” ruling a universe which is actually well beyond their comprehension.

 

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Attune

Attune: (v) to bring into accord, harmony, or sympathetic relationshipdictionary with letter A

Caught between the onslaught of profane extremism and the threat of eternal damnation, the human race is squeezed by greedy zealots out for the common dollar instead of the common good.

So rather than finding these culprits of foolishness and exposing them as the fanatics they are, we instead surmise that the human race is a doomed and failed species, incapable of self-containment, let alone shepherding the earth.

It’s time to attune with one another.

May I begin?

  1. Most of the time, we’re not evil, we’re just bored. Having no vision, we perish in our frailty.
  2. We are creative but taught to table such ingenious revelations in favor of the remake, which guarantees sales.
  3. We are not sexual deviants, but rather, sensual beings who mysteriously have the unique ability of mingling a committed, divine love with a ferocious, exciting orgasm.
  4. We are not spiritual, but we are emotional. This enables us to touch spiritual matters and enjoy them without thinking we’ve figured out the universe.
  5. We’re not lazy–just unmotivated. We are not uncaring–unfortunately, disconnected.
  6. We know that men and women are supposed to be equals, but we resist the premise, fearing that an even playing field would rob us of our uniqueness.
  7. We are neither afraid to believe in God nor frightened to discover He does not exist. But we do require a reason for our lives which allows us to escape the jaded notion that “it’s all meaningless.”

These are 7 that popped into my mind. There are probably many more, but I wouldn’t want to bore you with too many details…and accidentally drive you into sinful behavior.

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