Tag Archives: ambiguity

Arm-wrestling

dictionary with letter A

Arm-wrestling: (n) a trial of strength in which two people sit opposite each other with one elbow resting on a table, clasp each other’s hands, and try to force each other’s arm down onto the table.

Dick was boisterous.

I must apologize for the ambiguity in that sentence. Let me rephrase.

My friend, Richard, had a tendency to be a bit pompous and overwrought. So at a gathering of family and friends, when the conversation had lulled–yet there was still enough chips and dip for everyone to hang around–it was suggested that we have an arm-wrestling competition.

Candidly, I normally quietly slink away from such adventures. It’s not because I’m a wimp. It’s not that I lack physical prowess. It’s just that at any particular time, you can link your paw with another person and discover that they have amazing arm strength–and you can end up looking like a real loser.

So I fell quiet.

Not Dick.

He claimed that he had never been beaten at arm-wrestling. Most of the men in the room were fairly confident that they could whip Dick at this adventure, so they gave him room and pretended he was the master he purported. It was an act of mercy.

But not Candace.

Yes, one of the women in the room decided to challenge Dick to a match.

Candace was strong. Somewhere in my consciousness, I was fully aware that she was capable of beating Dick. I was about to step in and change the subject to spare him the humiliation of the confrontation, when Dick piped up and said, “I could beat any girl.”

Such a bad move.

All the women in the room immediately rallied behind Candace and began to cheer for her, which forced the guys into the decision of either deserting Dick and their masculinity, or giving feigned support to the fool.

There were even some bets.

So Candace and Dick sat down and linked hands for the competition. One of the things I can tell you about arm-wrestling is that once you join your hand with another person, you almost immediately have an awareness of whether you can beat them.

When Richard got into his position with Candace he bleached white. He knew he was in trouble.

And in trouble he was. She whipped him in less than three seconds.

Not only was Dick totally flattened by the experience, but it was never forgotten. And every time after that, when he became prideful, Candace was available to remind him … of his greatest Waterloo.

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Annunciate

dictionary with letter A

Annuciate: (v) to announce something.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” the town crier squalled at the top of his lungs.

To annunciate.

Yet I believe the definition has evolved over the years, has it not? It is no longer about making an announcement, but rather, the idea that to annunciate is to speak clearly.

Maybe this change was necessary because over the years misunderstanding has tainted the original proclamation.

We must realize that clarity is just as important as purity. There are many people who feel they can annunciate great truth from holy books, but because they do it with a hypocritical accent or a vicious tone, the words never quite land on the human heart with comprehension.

I’ve heard individuals suggest that somebody speaks “with a nasal tone.” Actually the nose is a great reverberator, and when used, generates clearness of speech rather than inhibiting it.

Sometimes people fail to annunciate because they don’t want their meaning to be grasped. Ambiguity is a great advantage to those who have decided to be chicken-shit.

Case in point: politics always looks for sentences that can have double or even triple interpretations so as to protect the politician from defining a position.

Yet sooner or later, those who announce with purpose and represent their cause precisely are the ones who advance the human race in the direction of unity.

For after all, once you proclaim “liberty and justice for all” it is difficult to tolerate segregation and inequity.

And when you’ve stood in a pulpit and spoken “God is love” and the words ring out like a bell in the heart of mankind, it is nearly impossible to transform that thought into a vengeful and hateful Being who wishes to destroy portions of His creation because of their status.

To annunciate: to announce, unafraid to articulate … knowing that the truth that makes us free must be spoken faithfully.

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