Tag Archives: art

Angelou, Maya

dictionary with letter A

Angelou, Maya: (1928-2014): a U.S. novelist and poet, who wrote the autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” recounting her harrowing experiences as a black child in the American south.

When Ms. Angelou died recently, I was curious about how the press would discuss her journey.

Let’s be honest–it’s what we do. We characterize human beings into such small compartments that it is difficult for them to be contained without busting out the sides.

Here is what I discovered: most of the reports focused on some aspect of her race, her experiences within the realm of her color, or her writings about the subject. It will be many generations before we’re able to escape the statement, “She was black.”

The next popular phrase used for her was “ground-breaking.”

Often I think we fail to understand that breaking ground means that the earth has gone fallow, failing to grow anything, and that someone needs to take a shovel to the crusty surface and risk looking like a fool for pursuing hope in the desert.

Even though we laud her efforts, we must realize that she spent the majority of her life subjugated by a society that found her inferior by hue, even though she was able to intellectually surpass all the hum of their activity.

In third place was an appreciation for her art.

I suppose it might have taken a primal position had it not been for an ongoing, quiet racism that whispers in corners of the secrecy of our private moments.

I personally remember her as a soft-spoken, gentle woman with a bit of edge, who tried to explain the confusion around her using more beautiful language than it perhaps deserves.

I recall her debating a rap artist and telling the young man that using dark or evil language was like pouring poison into the world. She said, “Poison is always poison.”

The young rapper was very respectful but unmoved. For after all, one man’s poison is another man’s medicine, and all the cures we have for ailments, left to themselves or taken in excess, are deadly.

She was a tender, simple woman of craft who believed there was still much to be done, carried the scars of her upbringing and yearned for a more peaceful place.

It is a great comfort to me that she has found that home.

It is a great curiosity to me that perhaps in the future, people like Maya can be known for what they say … instead of what color they appear to be.

 

 

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Thank you for enjoying Words from Dic(tionary) —  J.R. Practix

Ageless

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter A

Ageless: (adj) never growing or appearing to grow old e.g.: the town retained its ageless charm.

What is ageless?

To me there is one idea that is ageless, accompanied by other things that are spawned because of the value of that golden truth: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Once we decide to call that ageless, we therefore come up with the notion that “NoOne is better than anyone else.”

And if THAT’S true, we can relax and stop trying to appear superior to others.

Not needing to be superior to others, we don’t have to evangelize the world with our particular rendition of truth.

Given that extra time free from evangelizing, we can become creative–pursuing art, science and solutions.

With this blessed time provided, we also discover powerful ways to make our lives better and enrich the surrounding atmosphere.

And now that the world is convinced we are out to contribute instead of sucking the life out of everything, nature itself becomes more generous.

Because we’ve honored Mother Nature, Father God feels quite able to embrace us as His children.

No longer orphaned or feeling rebellious to a universe that was once our enemy, we calm down.

As we calm down, we feel less need to compete and more desire to congeal.

As we congeal, race, nationality, religion and physical differences become unimportant–almost comical.

Laughing at ourselves, we welcome a world of joy.

Joy increases our strength.

Stronger, we go out to use our energy to build instead of destroy.

No longer needing to destroy, we start thinking of ways to take the weaker among us and make them valuable.

Because everyone is considered valuable, we find it much easier to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

What is ageless is the power to believe in the idea of equality BEFORE it makes complete sense.

When we do so, some of the wrinkles in our society–and maybe even on our faces–disappear.

Afloat

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter A

Afloat: (adv) floating in water, not sinking

There is one great advantage to being a fat dude (other than the joy you achieve in chomping your way to the status quo…) When I go into the deep end of a pool, I am able to stand without needing to tread water … and float.

Matter of fact, one day I was doing just that and a guy swimming nearby me paused and stared at me in a combination of wonder and horror, and finally worked up the courage to ask, “How are you doing that?”

Feeling a bit of mischief in my heart, I replied, “Sometimes I get tired of walking on top of the water and I ease down to rest.”

The humor escaped him.

The reason I stay afloat is because I have enough lard stored in my tissue  that it creates a buoyancy which lifts me up in the current. Now, I am not suggesting that this is adequate motivation for risking the perils of obesity. But there is something wonderful about finding a way to be afloat without having to constantly struggle.

Matter of fact, I’ve tried to duplicate the sensation in other areas of my life:

  • With my family. I have raised my sons, and now it’s up to them to figure out what parts of what I shared were valuable and what was crap. I should relax.
  • With the people I meet. I can’t judge them, change them or ignore them. So instead, I will play a game and find ways love them.
  • With my finance. Great ideas offer the possibility of work, which if performed excellently, normally renders financial gain.
  • And with my art. Write it, sing it, share it, live it, believe it and leave the rest to the whim of God.

The best way to “stay afloat” is to be chubby with good cheer, instead of lean and mean … with despair.

 

Advise

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter A

Advise: (v) to offer suggestions about the best course of action to someone

You can spend your time lamenting why things are the way they are, or you can learn how they are and make clever adjustments to try to restore them to normalcy.

That’s the truth.

So with that in mind, let me tell you that giving advice is similar to playing tennis with a third leg protruding from the middle of your back. At first you might think it’s a good idea, but when you get out there, hittin’ the ball, you pretty much want to reach back there and yank the thing off.

Let me say it loud and risk the critique of those around me: Americans don’t take advice. So don’t advise them. They feign interest. They pretend to be intrigued if they think you have enough clout to be worthy of their ears, but they will just as quickly leave the room and go do things exactly the way they envisioned.

So here is my idea of what to do when the instinct to advise begins to tickle at the corners of your conscience:

  1. Find out what people really want to do and understand it thoroughly.
  2. Discover what parts of their aspiration are dangerous, illegal or stupid.
  3. Don’t share these discoveries with them directly.
  4. Take the balance of what is not self-destructive in the plan and encourage it heavily.

There you go.

Even though there is conventional wisdom which says there is great benefit in a multitude of counselors, this is only true if you listen to them. Since listening is not only a lost art, but more like a Nazi book burning–totally rejected by most people as they dance around the fire–it’s a good idea to establish a pattern of encouragement for smart while ignoring stupid.

  • If we did this in politics, for example, we could soon eliminate bad ideas by giving them no air play.
  • If we did it in religion, the better parts of God which benefit humankind, could be thrust to the forefront, while ignoring abstract traditions.
  • And if we did it in our personal lives, we would soon find that the weird things we’re pursuing are actually rather boring in the long run, and we could turn vegetables into candy. (Well, I went too far there. But at least we could find things to pour over vegetables which would make them edible.)

So you can feel free to ask for advice, but you must understand that folks expect you to heed it.

The best thing to do is to pay close attention to what works, what blesses, what enhances and what uplifts … and try to do that again tomorrow.

 

Adobe

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter AAdobe: (n) a kind of clay used as a building material

I am so excited.

Finally! In the making of all the Star Wars movies, they are actually doing a sequel based on one of the more obscure characters, but certainly an individual mentioned frequently throughout the saga–a villain not given much of a back story. But after all, Han Solo is constantly trying to run away from him, fears him and ends up temporarily defeated by him, which is pretty remarkable considering the scrapes this cosmic knight survives.

I’m talking about Jabba the Hutt.

They’re thinking about making a movie based just on him. I think it’s brilliant. They will take him back to when he was a little Jabba growing up–going through an explanation of how his early childhood drooling never went away and his inability to speak clearly and concisely was caused by being imprisoned in a cave as a youngster by his even more wicked father–Adobe the Hutt.

Doesn’t that sound fascinating?

Adobe the Hutt was a mercenary fighter purchased by the highest bidder for any ruthless cause that might come his way. Even though his little boy, Jabba, wanted to pursue art and had a natural inclination for small-craft work, Adobe insisted he learn the family business and acquire the murderous traditions of the Hutt clan.

It could be a tear-jerker. It will teach us that human beings–or even Jabbas–are not born evil, but instead, learn foul behavior from their families, friends and the world around them.

So keep an eye out for it–a REAL sequel to Star Wars instead of a made-up one about paper-thin Jedi warriors.

Coming soon: Adobe the Hutt … the story of Jabba.


Adobe

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter AAdobe: (n) a kind of clay used as a building material

I am so excited.

Finally! In the making of all the Star Wars movies, they are actually doing a sequel based on one of the more obscure characters, but certainly an individual mentioned frequently throughout the saga–a villain not given much of a back story. But after all, Han Solo is constantly trying to run away from him, fears him and ends up temporarily defeated by him, which is pretty remarkable considering the scrapes this cosmic knight survives.

I’m talking about Jabir the Hut.

They’re thinking about making a movie based just on him. I think it’s brilliant. They will take him back to when he was a little Jabba growing up–going through an explanation of how his early childhood drooling never went away and his inability to speak clearly and concisely was caused by being imprisoned in a cave as a youngster by his even more wicked father–Adobe the Hut.

Doesn’t that sound fascinating?

Adobe the Hut was a mercenary fighter purchased by the highest bidder for any ruthless cause that might come his way. Even though his little boy, Jabba, wanted to pursue art and had a natural inclination for small-craft work, Adobe insisted he learn the family business and acquire the murderous traditions of the Hut clan.

It could be a tear-jerker. It will teach us that human beings–or even Jabbas–are not born evil, but instead, learn foul behavior from their families, friends and the world around them.

So keep an eye out for it–a REAL sequel to Star Wars instead of a made-up one about paper-thin Jedi warriors.

Coming soon: Adobe the Hut … the story of Jabba.