Category Archives: B words

Blip

Blip: (n) a flashing point of light on a radar screen

Dictionary B

“Listen, man, you’re not even a blip on the radar screen.”

I’ve heard these words several times in my life, from people who wanted to make money off of me by promoting my works, or folks who wanted to limit the value of my mission by insisting it was ineffective.

People don’t want to be nasty–jealousy just makes them that way. Matter of fact, you can get rid of an awful lot of “nasty” in your life if you just decide not to be jealous.

No, I’m not a blip on the radar screen.

  • I’ve never received a phone call from CNN asking for an interview.
  • The Tonight Show has eluded me.
  • I have not appeared on any bestseller lists.
  • I am not being vetted for any national position.
  • The awards I’ve received have been scrawled on paper instead of presented as gold statues.

But since I’m not a blip on the screen, I can do the hell whatever I want. No one is concerned, because they think my meager attempts are meaningless.

Meanwhile, one after one, day after day, minute by minute, I encounter fellow-human beings and try, for the brief seconds I am with them, to make them glad they are alive and encourage them to be more hopeful about their prospects.

I write blogs which are read by unseen strangers who happen to stumble upon me accidentally. Yet, stumbling upon me, I try to make sure they are delighted by tripping my way.

Fame in America is a revolving door.

The powers that be will never actually let you inside the building. It’s reserved for old money, old clients, old stars, old politicians and old ideas. So as soon as you think you’re entering, they will find dirt and grime to smear all over your character and revolve you right out the exit.

What you want to do is be a flash in the pan–a moment when people see light and wonder if there is the possibility of more up ahead.

 

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Blink

Blink: (v) to shut and open the eyes quickly.

Dictionary B

“Don’t blink or you’ll miss it!”

The standard comedic line to describe a tiny town with only one stoplight. By now, the joke has been worn out, but obviously, the inner-office memo has not reached every outpost.

It’s amazing: a practice which is essential to our well-being and extremely frequent–that of blinking–is considered to be a sign of weakness, lack of attention or cowardice.

“Don’t blink!”

“Don’t be the first to blink!”

So I would like to step in and say, “I blink.”

Yes, there are things that shock me.

I do not want to become so worldly and road-weary that I pretend that my cynicism has freed me from the instinct to blink.

I do blink:

  • I’m still appalled at lying.
  • I find pornography to be a safari into a human zoo.
  • Hearing profanity in public makes me wince along with my blink.

I’m not a prude, but I’m not proud of exaggerating my level of tolerance.

I like gentleness, I like kindness and I blink when I see people abuse each other or curse at one another because the traffic light turned green and no one moved.

I think to be alive, caring and willing to embrace humankind, the natural blinking that the eyes perform numerous times in a minute … should also be duplicated in our souls.

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Blind

Blind: (adj) unable to see; sightlessDictionary B　

Visiting the Grand Canyon. Bad time to be blind.

A fireworks display. Be prepared to enjoy the bangs. Not a positive if you’re blind.

Running across some race situation, culture or individual where your prejudice is still rubbed a little raw by your ignorance. Blindness can be a plus.

A great teacher once said, “The blind cannot lead the blind or they’ll fall into the ditch.”

But the truth of the matter is, if the blind have already walked the path, then they are better ushers for other blind people than those with sight, trying to explain what lies ahead.

I’ve been blind.

  • I’ve been blinded by my bigotry.
  • I’ve been blinded by my sense of inadequacy.
  • I’ve been blinded by my greed.
  • I’ve certainly been blinded by my lust.

My blindness helps me understand my fellow-sightless-brothers and sisters.

Matter of fact, I’m not so sure that you can ever see unless you go through a season of being blind.

Certainly you’ll never appreciate it as much.

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Blight

Blight: (n) something that frustrates plans or hopes.

Dictionary BWhen good is ignored because it’s not bad enough to be exciting.

That is the blight on every culture.

Any time we begin to believe that the pursuit of happiness, the joy of generosity and the cradle of creativity is not enough to instill enthusiasm in our lives, we bring an infection into our thinking, which culminates in chaos.

I ask myself a simple question: what can I do to bring joy to myself and my fellow-humans without being relegated to the role of the silly, foolish, naive dunce?

I don’t know why we think evil is so intriguing.

I don’t know why, in the presence of good, that Adam and Eve pursued the knowledge of evil.

Is there some sort of misguided notion that doing things in a cloud of deceit actually increases the level of pleasure?

  • For women, do bad boys make sex more exciting?
  • For men, do prostitutes actually have more experience for thrilling encounters?
  • Does lying make political victory sweeter?

Goodness has always suffered from bad public relations.

It is time to take the blight off of our society by exposing what really happens to darkness in the third act, instead of merely leaving the play after Act One … believing that wickedness is cool.

 

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Blew

Blew: (v) past tense of blow

Dictionary BThere is great human wisdom in refusing to allow others to rob us of our moment of honesty.

If they need to extract the truth from us, we will lose all the brownie points from uttering it.

If we’re at the mercy of the scrutiny of critics, we will suddenly find ourselves living in a society in which critics have as much prominence as those who create.

The most powerful statement I will ever make in my life is, “I blew it”–especially if I’m able to squeeze in that confession before others leap upon my carcass.

Matter of fact, let’s look at the conjugation of this process:

  • I blow things.
  • I blew this.
  • It is blown.

A delightful process.

First of all, to have the courtesy to warn people that we are capable of blowing it.

Then to inform the tourists that the journey will be interrupted by the fact that we blew it.

And finally, to have that intelligence to know that something is blown and beyond repair, instead of reaching for the duct tape.

It’s inevitable.

I will need to admit that I blew it so I will not continue to chase the tail of what ends up being a dead dog.

Therefore, be careful.

When you think something is going to be a breeze, you are more likely to “blow it.”

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Blessed

Blessed: (adj) made holy; consecrated.

Dictionary B

To lead a blessed life, one must be aware of how to bless.

Even though the Christian experience extols the power and virtue of “doing good to those who do evil to us,” the typical human reaction is to duplicate what has been done to us–with a 20% increase in rage.

In other words, it’s not really “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” it’s more like “an eye for a popped pimple” and a “tooth for a sneer.”

With that in mind, we must learn that true progress cannot be made in our lives if we’re constantly plotting or dodging revenge.

To be blessed is to bless.

And to bless people is to balance the beauty of challenging and encouraging.

So to be blessed, we must be willing to be challenged, and receive our encouragement as fuel instead of awards. Yes, I take your words of appreciation and fill my tank so I am prepared to dole out the challenge and encouragement to others.

I also take your challenge as a way of improving my ability to relate to humankind instead of constantly finding myself an irritant.

The “Abrahamic” principle of “eyes and teeth” is not going to be rejected by the human race. It is firmly established in most of the religious people of this world.

But if you want to be successful, free of fear and devoid of the need to even the score, then find a blessed life … by knowing how to challenge and encourage those around you.

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Bless

Bless: (v) to invoke divine favor

Dictionary B

Somewhere in the jostling and bouncing between challenging and encouraging, we actually learn to bless people.

We rarely feel divine kindness merely by being challenged to achieve a code which lacks human sensitivity.

Nor are we truly blessed by only being encouraged to accept mediocre accomplishments as excellent.

I am human.

I need those around me to challenge me–and encourage me.

To do so, they must know my heart’s desire–what I really believe is valuable when I am completely stable and sane instead of drunken on my own excesses, or fearful within the boundaries of my insecurities.

God, Himself, cannot bless human beings without challenging and encouraging them. Yet the danger is that we will ping-pong our emotions between condemnation and adulation.

In the midst of every good deed, there’s a slip-up.

And also, in the presence of every disaster, there are pieces of truth which can be retained.

We become powerful when we learn how to bless.

To do so demands the juggling of challenge and encouragement.

 

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Blend

Blend: (v) to mix a substance with another substance so that they combine together as a mass.

Dictionary B

Human life is a dinner party–it really is.

When you plan a dinner party, you do not envision twelve small, separate tables filling a room, offering different cuisine to each clump. The purpose of a dinner party is to put a select group of people around the same table, enjoying the same meal and general conversation to achieve a sense of commonality.

It is also not a buffet line, where you place as many different, poorly prepared dishes as possible in a row, in an attempt to please those who shuffle through your smorgasbord.

It is a dinner party.

It is where we invite others, discover what they like to eat, whether they have peanut allergies or if they are pro- or anti-gluten.

Then, based upon the information, we sit down and blend it all together, to create a menu–from soup to nuts–that is pleasant to all concerned. (Well, maybe not nuts.)

Yet it seems we’re totally incapable of comprehending this in the realm of politics and religion. In those cases, everything must be suited to the tastes of smaller and smaller configurations of fussier and fussier participants.

We have to learn to blend.

To do so requires that leadership help us find our food for thought instead of gnawing on our bones of contention.

 

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Bleep

Bleep: (n) a short high-pitched sound

Dictionary B

Often the solution is worse than the problem.

I listen in horror as commercials on television tell me the side effects of drugs that are meant to be helpful.

I frequently find myself with my mouth agape as I try to comprehend how politicians intend to take their limited “party view” and make it expansive enough for a diverse nation.

I am baffled by a church that insists that prayer in any form is a replacement for personal touch.

And I just cannot fathom why the censors on television believe that “bleeping” profane words actually eliminates their impact.

We children of Adam and Eve certainly can be pretentious. This is probably why Adam and Eve chose the Tree of Knowledge over the Tree of Life. We would much rather present ourselves as intelligent instead of possessing a hunger for the journey.

I do not know what we should do with the slang and colloquial profanities that permeate our society. But bleeping them does not lessen their obvious content–matter of fact, it creates a game, causing those who listen to speculate.

So somewhere along the line we need to work on the human heart, which is where all speech finds its birth.

Otherwise, we’re going to need someone to constantly follow us around, bleeping as we go.

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Bleeding Heart

Bleeding heart: (n) a person considered to be dangerously softhearted

Dictionary B

Human understanding might be possible if we would just come to the conclusion that it’s not our right to decide for others.

As a conservative might be willing to explain how certain types of people have cultural differences which cause them to react in unacceptable ways, a liberal will turn around and decide that the same people are victims of a greedy culture which does not care for them at all.

Here’s the truth: human beings are not nearly as organized, sinister or motivated as we would like to believe.

If I were comparing the average person to a substance, I contend that Play-Doh would be most appropriate. It sits on its can and does nothing until somebody frees it.

Free, it then becomes part of the playtime experience and is able to be molded into something that at least resembles a possibility.

I find myself at a disadvantage when I am in a roomful of conservatives because they are too damn sure of themselves to be smart.

And I am equally as uncomfortable when the bleeding-heart liberals target the rich as the offenders of the unfortunate poor.

Here’s what I know:

If I found myself extremely wealth, I would have to learn how to use my wealth productively, intelligently and generously–or else I would end up feeling like a big pile of rhinoceros poop.

Likewise, if I were suddenly homeless, I would have to tap the same initiative to find the best soup kitchens, odd jobs and warm, inexpensive places to sleep–to ensure that I didn’t turn into a belligerent mental case.

We will make progress when we realize that people do better when they are neither judged nor pitied.

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