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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Attrition

Attrition: (n) the process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure.dictionary with letter A

“It was a joke.”

Those four words have become the byline and mantra of a whole generation which feels that humor is best expressed in extremes, attacks and bursts of profanity.

I’m not a prude–at least by my standards.

Maybe in a world of “anything goes,” I might be considered one of the first things that needs to go, but I do become concerned that truly valuable experiences, beliefs and hopes are being starved out from the banquet table of daily consumption.

There are three that come to mind. Basically, these three have been so jilted, jarred and jolted by coarse humor and ridicule that now, to be a proponent of their cause makes you appear old-fashioned or anti-“something or other” that everyone else seems to be pro.

  1. Courtesy.

It’s just a gentle awareness that we share a planet with other creatures instead of staring down at our favorite apparatus as we zoom through the marketplace in oblivion.

I like courtesy. I like that brief moment when a thank you, you’re welcome, excuse me, would you be so kind, or may I ask you? causes us to make eye contact with another human being.

  1. Debate based on history and facts instead of screaming and emotional intimidation.

I would just love to know if something we contend is right could actually survive the scrutiny of the historical perspective, or a scouring shower in real facts. Please don’t tell me I’m conservative or I’m liberal just because I’m curious to find the truth about something you’ve already decided is too hip to deny.

  1. Faith.

I’m not talking about religion. But when you throw out all belief systems and insist that science is your god, you remove the majesty which causes us to be aware of something beyond our own whim and opinion.

Faith is the odyssey one takes in trying to understand why we are the way we are and how perhaps we can do it better.

Yes, I believe that if it requires a God in the heavens to make us more conscientious about our dealings on Earth, then long may He or She reign.

These three things are being sucked from life by coarse jesting and vicious attacks.

They are experiencing attrition.

There are many parts of our society which could afford to be suffocated, but I’m not so sure we can do without courtesy, actual searching for truth and some relevant faith.

 

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Attribute

Attribute: (n) a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something.dictionary with letter A

Marley had been dead for 7 years, and the only two things said about him came from Ebenezer Scrooge, who proclaimed him “a good man of business,” and others, who surmised that he was a cheap son-of-a-bitch.

Even though I recognize the value of leaving behind a history of my thoughts and feelings by writing and creating, in 30 years I will be judged by a single attribute.

What did I do to make other people’s lives easier?

That’s it.

If you’re of the mindset which contends that you’re on the planet to defend righteousness, or on the other side of the scales, to “eat, drink and be merry,” you may be sadly disappointed by the legacy you leave behind–because forced righteousness makes humans miserable and a philosophy of open-ended vice creates its own vacuum of angst.

What have I done this week to make people’s lives simpler, more gentle–shoot–more possible?

Being grouchy, picky, anal, selfish, giggly, scatter-brained or invisible really are not attributes, but instead, human vices we wink at, assuming that the person tied to them is basically useless to us.

  • Are you finding problems and solving them or just discussing them, or perhaps making them worse?
  • Are you bringing good cheer to situations of tension, or a can of gasoline to a forest fire?
  • Are you believing for the best, or joining those who chase conspiracies, insisting they’re not theories?

For what will I be known?

When it’s all said and done, and clichés like “when it’s all said and done” have been abandoned, I will probably be known for the silliness I brought to others.

They might actually read some of my works because they desire to possess such a gypsy joy, but it will be my attribute of child-like appreciation which draws them to my compositions.

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Attractive

Attractive: (adj) pleasing or appealing to the senses.dictionary with letter A

As I was getting ready to write this essay to you fine folks, I glanced up and caught a glimpse in the mirror of an aging gent, who apparently had come to sit for a spell and act as an audience for my thoughts.

Yes, there was a brief second when I did not recognize the person in the mirror.

Certainly it is me. I am not in denial.

But there is a different “me” living inside, who is vibrant, young, energetic, playful and probably delightfully naive.

The fellow in the mirror is well-traveled, rugged, worn and definitely showing the effects of the passing years.

Sometimes I forget that he is the face of the project.

Maybe that’s why I like being a writer. It allows the other tenant who occupies my space to pull out his cleverness and “cute” ideas, without having to advertise Grandpa, on the front porch.

I’m not afraid of getting old. I’ve been getting older ever since I was born. It isn’t the first time I’ve been shocked by the process.

So I am fully aware that this is a part of life, and by no means do I resent it–it’s just that occasionally I’m surprised at how it physically manifests itself much more drastically than it does emotionally, mentally or spiritually.

I guess I would be greatly disheartened if my spirit looked the same way as my body does.

What is attractive? Attractive is what causes us to be attracted. So what attracts you to a person and what attracts me will certainly be somewhat different.

I know this to be true:

Anyone who is pleasant to the eye quickly becomes a disappointment if they aren’t able to hold up their end of a conversation.

And it is amazing how ugly a person can become once stupidity has been unleashed.

So I guess I’ll work on my outer core, to keep it from deteriorating too quickly, and trust that you will give my inner man the chance to show you how attractive he truly can be.

 

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Attorney

Attorney: (n) a person appointed to act for another in business or legal matters.dictionary with letter A

A friend of mine was going through a nasty divorce.

She was desperately in need of getting away from an abusive husband, but unfortunately had limited funds. Also unfortunately, my bank account mirrored hers.

So she combed through the Yellow Pages and found an attorney who advertised reduced rates. She called him up and he optimistically told her of a plan of action to get out of her marriage for a mere $250.

It was the best deal available so my dear friend jumped on the opportunity and signed on the dotted line.

Everything went along fine at first–until the renegade husband decided to contest. Apparently, our attorney had missed some classes on “contesting.” He seemed completely baffled as to what to do when things did not go exactly by the step-by-step plan in his “paint-by-lawyering” kit.

So he failed to file papers on time, creating an absolute mess for the custody of the children, which eventually led to the crazed gentleman abducting the offspring and generating a plot which might have been suitable for a “Law and Order” episode.

When confronted with his inept handling of the situation, the attorney replied, “Yeah. I probably should have done that, but I didn’t.”

That was it.

My friend thought about asking for a refund but then it occurred to her:

When you go seeking for a discount, you may not be able to “discount” the results.

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