Tag Archives: Kum-bah-yah

Behind

Behind: (prep) to the far side of something so as to be hidden by it.

Dictionary B

“Behind times.”

It’s the accusation that alleged progressive individuals make about those who have chosen to be not quite so energetic in their leaping.

Here’s what I’ve found: progress is not linear.

It is not a row starting at Point A with a destination somewhere in the future at Point Z.

It’s actually a series of circles.

We roll along forward, and suddenly we dip back, creating a sphere to a former time, attempting to balance our present progress with a little nostalgia and common sense.

So when that circle is completed and we’re back to where we started, then we wiggle ahead a bit.

There are those who prefer to always be pressing on, and certainly there are souls who favor retreating to the rear, to campfires and Kum Bah Yah.

So what is behind us we will once again soon revisit and then grow tired of the repetition, to inch our way forward again.

It may be the accurate definition of the “strait and narrow”–where progress forward is so constricted that occasionally we fall back to remember simpler times.

Some people are frightened that the present technology will take us away from being close to one another and fellowshipping one on one.

Pure foolishness.

We are humans and will always need the sense of closeness … to hear the breathing of our comrades.

 

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

 

Abaca

by J. R. Practix

dictionary with letter AAbaca: n. a large, herbaceous Philippine plant of the banana family that yields Manila hemp.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you sat too near a fire at a church camp, wearing a shirt made out of hemp? It might give a whole new meaning to a “kum-bah-yah moment.”

I do think that for a few days, I’m going to walk around saying repeatedly, ” …large herbaceous….”  Now, I certainly am going to find reasons for such a proclamation, but I’m comfortable with the fact that no one knows what it means and most of us are too embarrassed to admit it, so I can probably get by with using it in some bizarre ways, and people will just nod their heads, feeling they are in the presence of true genius.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Do you offer any large herbaceous side orders with that Big Mac?”

How about this one? The next time I go to the swimming pool and an attractive young woman arrives, I will turn to my friends and say, “Well. That is certainly large and herbaceous.”

I will bet you that no one will even flinch–as long as I don’t do it in front of people under the age of fifteen, who are still innocent enough to admit they are verbally challenged.

Is anybody else trying to imagine a banana which is large and herbaceous, by the way, which is truly a Manila hemp plant?

                    “They call me Mellow Yellow, that’s right, Slim…”

Also gives a whole new meaning to “banana split.” Think about it.

I don’t know what use I will have for knowing what abaca is (aside from the prolonged usage of “large and herbaceous”) but I have a feeling that after writing this, I am going to be attacked in my dreams by a six-foot-tall banana smoking a bong, with Jimmy Hendrix music in the background.

I’ll let you know.