Category Archives: B words

Bleed

Bleed: (v) to lose blood from the body

Dictionary B

Seventeen.

In the course of watching one evening of television–with a lot of channel flipping–I counted seventeen people who were shot.

All of them started to bleed.

I watched with interest.

It seemed to stain their clothing.

They appeared to be in pain, though I felt no empathy.

In one particular gun scene, ten of the seventeen were wounded with blood loss.

I watched intently.

Turning my television set off, I went into my bathroom to prepare for bed and realized I had not shaved that morning. So for some inexplicable reason, I thought it was a good idea to do so before I went to bed.

Call it clumsiness, stupidity or just a bit of “sleepy eyes,” I cut my lip with the razor.

Blood poured forth.

Not as much as you would expect to come out of a gunshot wound, but it struck terror in my soul and nearly made me frantic.

It was my blood coming out of my face with no immediate prospect for cessation.

It took me five minutes to stop the bleeding.

I looked down at discarded toilet paper covered with my red fluid and the sink stained. It was gruesome.

In actuality, I probably didn’t lose more than a tablespoon of blood–but it terrified me to see my life dribble away.

One of the things that disturbs me about entertainment is what we now consider to be entertaining.

Bleeding is bad.

Things that cause bleeding are equally as sinister.

And losing our sensitivity about a single drop of blood may be the definition of evil.

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Bleak

Bleak: (adj) without hope or encouragement

Dictionary B

The abiding sense of superiority is generally accompanied by a pious smirk.

Often, when I involve myself in discussions about hope, possibilities and even the importance of kindness, a roomful of pseudo-intellectuals will smirk at me. Matter of fact, the entire entertainment industry seems to be on a dismal journey to convince the world that “dark is the new light.”

Yes, we’re supposed to take unseemly, nasty characters and find a tiny stream of goodness within them.

It’s a convenient assertion.

After all, if it turns out that I am a bit more righteous than the average protagonist, I leave the theater feeling really good about myself.

But it is a dangerous practice–giving human beings too much rope. They will not only hang themselves, but also use the slack to cut none to others.

  • If the whole world is mediocre, then what is the definition of good?
  • If evil is the norm, then why pursue excellence?
  • If politicians are all liars, then how should we listen?
  • If religion is possessed by “greedy Gantrys,” then why should we pray?

In the pursuit of realism, what we have discovered is a bleak bitterness which promotes the decay of mankind … minus the possibility of redemption.

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Blazer

Blazer: (n) a lightweight jacket, typically solid-colored

Dictionary B

In my high school days I was in a music group, a quartet of fellows who were very intrigued with the idea of being famous and not quite so intent on musicality.

We spent most of our rehearsals discussing the clothes we would wear on stage, and also whether we could get a good deal on Beatle Boots. It was very important.

Of these four young men, I was the chubbiest.

So whenever we went clothes shopping and they found something they really liked–something they thought was hot and cute, which would get the girls’ attention–they would discover that it didn’t come in “Porky.”

They pretended not to be disappointed–but I knew I was holding them back from being debonaire.

One day we came across some golden blazers.

They were so cool. Everyone tried one on, and each person looked stunning in his own adolescent, awkward way.

There was one extra-large in the blazer. I tried it on, and it covered most of the terrain of my belly but pinched me at the shoulders and looked a bit ridiculous when I stood in front of the mirror.

But the guys were so intent on purchasing the garment that they convinced me I was passable.

Back home, I tried it on again and again and again. Each time it looked worse and worse and worse–especially when I wore it with the accompanying black turtleneck.

I looked like a bumblebee with a glandular problem.

So I set out to address the situation by soaking my blazer in water and then going out to my mother’s clothesline in the back yard, hanging it up with pairs of boots dangling from the inseams, so as to stretch it.

Do you get the picture?

After it dried out, I discovered that it still failed to cover my midriff–but nearly reached to my knees.

For the next year and a half, whenever it was “golden blazer time,” the other guys looked nifty and keen–and I resembled a monk who had recently acquired a beer gut.

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Blaze

Blaze: (n) a fiercely burning fire.

Dictionary B

There is a consensus in the human species.

All of us desire to be considered forerunners, creative and pioneers. We express this by proclaiming, “Show me the trail and I will blaze away!”

Thus the general misconception.

There is no trail in place. That’s why it has to be blazed.

Yes, things have to be set on fire–and then all of the burned-off foliage must be cleared away to provide a path.

  • We keep waiting for guidance.
  • We keep stalling, hoping obvious conclusions smack us in the face.

And what we see is a forest, which we declare to be trees, not resembling a road.

We play it safe.

In the pursuit of “obvious” we are always robbed of opportunity. For open doors are not really open at all, but merely doors that no one has actually tried.

At present, there are no trails in politics, none in religion, nor in gender relationships.

What we see before us are walls, mountains and intimidating jungles. To turn them into trails will require some blazing.

It will demand individuals dressed in buckskin instead of three-piece suits.

It will take those who use the fire, endure the fire and then remain to progress the cause … after the blaze.

 

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Blather

Blather: (v) to talk long-windedly without making very much sense.

Dictionary B

There are certain words that are talked about way too much.

I’m not saying they are unimportant–I’m not even connoting they’re overused in their value to our life experience.

It’s just that when you allow foolish people to pontificate on serious matters, you end up creating an audience that is both unimpressed and unwilling to hear any more.

Just so much blather.

May I give you five of these words?

  • God
  • Love
  • Hope
  • Patriotism
  • Education

Even though the absence of any one of these pearls from our purse would be devastating, it is treacherous when the ignorant decide to offer their views like grunting pigs and barking dogs.

Just make sure if you bring up any one of these five treasures that you’re prepared to be well-spoken, briefly spoken and truthfully spoken. 

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Blatant

Blatant: (adj) bad behavior done openly and unashamedly.

Dictionary B

There are certain words which close the door to communication. For instance, “inexcusable.” If someone tells me that what I’ve done is “inexcusable,” repentance is rather fruitless.

Such is true with the word blatant.

I have found myself in the midst of discussions which turned into arguments as they became bottlenecked by the introduction of this word. Let me give you an example:

“When you came into the room, you ignored me, and it was a blatant expression of your disdain for my person.”

Now, I suppose I could discuss or even disagree if I were accused of ignoring someone, but when the individual has determined that it was blatant–pre-planned, carved in stone and hatched hours earlier in the basement of my hellish cottage–then compromise has possibly been eliminated.

What is blatant?

Do we really believe that human beings are so crafty and intelligent that they can construct devilish plans of premeditated proportions?

Or do we realize, deep in our hearts, that all of us mortals are pretty much pulling it out of our ass?

 

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Blasphemy

Blasphemy: (n) the offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things

Dictionary B

Sometimes I allow my idealism to take over the steering wheel and drive me to places of hope.

Generally speaking, there is a car crash along the way.

It’s called “human behavior,” or perhaps, human opinion.

Many years ago I wrote a rock musical called Mountain, which was the Sermon on the Mount set to music. I put together a cast and a twenty-five-city tour.

I was so excited.

The musical had what I considered to be good tunes, choreography, humor and heart.

But my balloon quickly sprang a leak and my dreams began to descend to the Earth.

For you see, some of those who attended objected to the fact that dance was included, since surely Jehovah God only marches and never does the fox trot.

But the most comical attack came from an individual who insisted I had committed blasphemy because in one of the scenes, when Jesus was preparing to share his message, he pauses, miming brushing his teeth.

We thought it was cute. Matter of fact, one of the cast members said “adorable.”

But apparently, to this lady in the audience, it showed great disrespect to connote that the Savior might have experienced halitosis.

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Blasé

Blasé: (adj) unimpressed or indifferent

Dictionary B

What is the difference between blasé and meek?

“The meek shall inherit the Earth.”

Those who are blasé inherit reruns.

There is a tendency to believe that if we are not ranting or raving, we are not passionately involved. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Blasé  is a condition that infects the human heart when we cease to believe that quality, further growth or excellence can be achieved.

We think we’ve seen it all, when we haven’t even opened the catalogue.

Meek, on the other hand, is knowing exactly what you want to do, but realizing you’re surrounded by critics and those who are blasé  … and merely waiting until they leave so you can get started.

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Blare

Blare: (v) to make a loud, harsh sound.

Dictionary B

I met Sammy at a music festival.

She was unusual, and not just because her name was Sammy. She was flamboyant, but in that way that was pleasing and attractive.

She had great energy.

She was talented.

She was conversational.

Yet she found herself desperate for human contact. No one wanted to be around Sammy because when she spoke, she was so loud.

The word “brash” was associated with her, and of course, lots of folks accused her of “blaring.”

There are times that even I grew weary of her voluminous responses, wishing she would tone down. After a while, the sound was so intense that my ears had to slow down the flow so my brain could understand.

But I persisted because she was well worth the effort.

Sammy invited me over to a family gathering.

I arrived at the small, two-bedroom house, which was completely encompassed with at least 25 people.

They were all loud.

Matter of fact, they made Sammy appear to be the timid mouse. I realized that she had learned to project her voice just to be heard in this environment and not be left out at dinnertime from the baked potato distribution.

It was such a great lesson for me.

Now, when I run across people who blare at me, I realize that they’re possibly frightened that nobody will hear them without the implementation of multiple decibels.

Life is not as complicated as we make it out to be. Everyone who gains our disapproval has a story–a tale which needs to be understood.

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Blanket

Blanket: (n) a large piece of material used as a covering for warmth.

Dictionary B

Having met my share of homeless brothers and sisters, I became very curious. What was it like to be homeless?

So I made a decision to don the uniform of the street and attempt to walk in the shoes of those without gainful employment, hearth and home.

I decided I would do it for a week, but must tell you that I abandoned it after twenty-four hours.

The daytime found me in a situation in which I constantly needed to be on the move so as not to annoy the “civilized” people who passed by. I got hungry very quickly and didn’t have any money, so had to figure out where to go for a free luncheon, or beg off of my neighbors.

It was humiliating.

But the most difficult part was when nighttime fell, and my mission was to locate a place to sleep that was both comfortable and safe.

I discovered that such a utopia does not exist for the street person.

I hid behind a huge bush and laid down several cardboard boxes I had broken up to use as my mattress. Several problems leaped to the forefront:

1. Every sound spooked me.

2. Sleeping on the ground means sharing the turf with things that creep and crawl.

3. I was uncomfortable not having my head elevated (pillow).

4. But the most annoying part was the lack of a blanket.

I was so accustomed to being covered, protected, swaddled by that piece of cloth that gave warmth and the sense of cocooning.

It made me bitchy, frustrated, cold, and caused me to wake up the next morning antagonistic toward the world around me–in a season when I was most vulnerable.

A blanket is a sense of well-being.

When you remove it, it takes away a gentle reassurance that all is well … and you are coddled.

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