Tag Archives: movies

Atmosphere

Atmosphere: (n) the pervading tone or mood of a place, situation, or work of art.dictionary with letter A

As our earth cannot exist and sustain life without oxygen and water, so the following ideas, organizations and gatherings require a certain atmosphere in order to generate life:

  • Movies–inspired entertainment
  • Government–cooperation and service
  • School–a focused relaxation
  • Church–a joyful noise
  • Business–eager integrity
  • Parenting–detached awareness
  • Sexuality–mutual respect
  • Racial relations–no one is better than anyone else
  • Conversation–breathing and speaking
  • Exercise–to one’s ability
  • Creativity–simple and daily
  • Eating–tasty fuel
  • Friendship–encouraging confrontation
  • Laughter–frequently and often at oneself
  • Confidence–inside more than outside
  • Music–heart journeying to soul
  • Sports–fair-minded competition
  • Religion–humbly helpful

These are the necessary atmospheres.

When you don’t provide the atmosphere for the challenge … you suck the air out of the room.

 

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

Ascendant

Ascendant: (adj) rising in power or influencedictionary with letter A

I sit patiently watching.

I am not given to the frantic profile of becoming too encouraged by any particular fleeting moment, or discouraged by threatening trends.

I have an abiding truth deep within my soul. I know for a fact that “love your neighbor as yourself” is not an inspiration, nor is it an aspiration, but actually the respiration for human life.

So from my position of review, I wait until I see anything that comes along which confirms the value of including others’ feelings and success in the quest for our own. Whenever I see it, I interrupt my solitude by bursting into applause.

Yet if a new book, song, movie or pundit comes out proposing that we shut others out, or only think about our own well-being, I simply disagree, step into the shadows and await the downfall of such idiocy.

There is only one principle which is ascendant to human life. When we fail to follow it, everything begins to fall apart. To a certain degree, it is the confirmation of the paradigm which states, “If a butterfly dies in the rain forest of Brazil, it snows in Minnesota.”

Even though this idea seems a bit abstract, whenever we take the time to consider the feelings of others as much as we consider our own, that mercy trickles down to nature … and even the longevity of the butterfly controlling the snowfall in Minneapolis.

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Aqualung

dictionary with letter A

Aqualung (n): a portable breathing apparatus for divers.

There are some movies I just can’t watch.

I shall not bore you in this brief article by listing them, nor elaborating on each and every style that curries my disfavor. Let me just say that any movie where people are swimming under water, holding their breath, scares the…well, scares the salt water out of me.

Especially when people around me start trying to imitate, holding their breath also, to prove they would be able to survive the ordeal being dramatically acted out in front of us.

Let me be honest. Normally I find myself to be a generous, giving sort of soul. If you’re a dollar short, I will come along. If you need a lift to work, count on me.

But if we happen to be under water, sucking on breathing tubes and suddenly my tank goes dry, I’ll rip that mother right out of your mouth.

That’s right. It wouldn’t matter if you were my mother.

Some sort of terror of suffocating would cause me to abandon all social restraint, and Christian training, for that matter.

Upon resurfacing, breathing and seeing your body floating in the water, I would be ashamed. I might even second-guess my instinct to survive.

But I can’t even bear to watch people trying to use those tanks in a movie, or discovering that they are low on O2, and begin passing it between them like there’s a choice for the other person to survive.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this and I certainly hope I never find myself in this position. Because no one wants to play the coward in the movie, who swims away from the little girl who’s in peril.

But I guarantee you, if I were placed in such a dilemma, I would swim away … like a little girl in peril. 

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Anthology

dictionary with letter A

Anthology (n.): a published collection of poems, songs, musical compositions or writings, compiled in a single album.

I am thoroughly convinced that we do not learn anything at all until the new idea is explained to us in relationship to something we already believe or know.

This is why it’s difficult to study for a test–because if the information is abstract and merely connected by words or numbers, we are depending on our brain to memorize it instead of associating it with something already stored.

I will go so far as to say that the quickest way to confuse people is to ask them to learn something without giving them a point of reference or a comparison to something with which they are already acquainted.

It’s why I’ve always been impressed by the craft of storytelling–to link a previous idea with the next idea, lending itself to an easy transformation into the following idea, culminating with what we determine to be a logical conclusion.

I think some of the best things I’ve ever read, heard or experienced in my life were really anthologies–pieces of information linked together by a common, spirited goal.

Jesus once told people that “the Kingdom of God is like…” and then he gave many, many examples of everyday events and objects so that the people’s finite brain could understand the tiny tip of the iceberg of the universe. Keep in mind–the power of the tip of the iceberg is that at least you’re on the iceberg instead of drowning in a sea of confusion.

I would welcome politics, religion, art, music, movies and even everyday conversation to have more linkage and common references so that we can create an anthology in our mind that lends itself to greater understanding.

 

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Antagonism

dictionary with letter A

Antagonism: (n.) active hostility or opposition.

We just can’t make up our minds.

Are human beings supposed to be angry or are we supposed to quell our feelings, disguising them as mellow cooperation?

We are confused.

Sometimes we criticize ourselves for having any temper whatsoever, while simultaneously applauding heroes in movies who take vengeance on their enemies.

Which one is it?

Honestly, the only way to deal with antagonism is to never allow it to get that far.

How does it digress? When we refuse to admit that we’re pissed off.

By the time we finish struggling over the validity of our feelings we are so exasperated, exhausted and infuriated that we pop off with something we shouldn’t say or do something beyond the pale.

If true spirituality were correctly imparted to believers, we would comprehend that the key to controlling our anger is releasing it in tiny doses as it rises to the surface.

As the Good Book tells us, we should not let the sun set on our anger. We should be angry and sin not. For after all, what generates sin is violence.

And the Good Book also tells us that we should never allow ourselves to ignore our apprehensions to the point that we start calling people names and destroying their reputation.

Antagonism is a social disease created by a civilized society caught between the reality of human frustration and the aspiration to keep peace and quiet.

As long as people shall dwell together, there will be conflict.

Having a healthy debate or even a livid argument is preferable to shooting a missile up someone’s backside.

 

 

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Android

dictionary with letter A

Android: (n) In science fiction, a robot with a human appearance.

I was just sitting here realizing that the concept of android portrayed by the science fiction writer probably was derived from observing a bunch of human beings who appeared to be androids.

So it’s not so much that androids take on the attributes of humans, but rather, that so many humans we know have acquired aspects of the android personality.

  • Their speech is stilted.
  • Their facial features rarely change.
  • Their movements are stiff.
  • And unless reprogrammed, they continue to pop off the same information over and over again without any need for contradiction or any sense of embarrassment.

I have many relatives who are androids.

I have met many people in the business world who certainly could pass for one.

After all, the androids in the movies don’t really act human in the sense of being unpredictable, emotional and filled with both grief and glee. They are even-tempered, controlled beings who don’t sweat–mainly because they never exert.

So I’m not so sure we’ve created a robot that resembles humans, but rather, we already have humans that resemble this particular type of robot.

You see what I mean?

For if androids really were human-like, they would spend most of their time broken down and complaining about the lack of attention and a personal need to be oiled.

That would be a real human android. Otherwise, what you have is an android human, which unfortunately, fill the ranks of those who insist on filing.

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Amazon

dictionary with letter A

Amazon: (n) a river in South America that flows more than 4,150 miles through Peru, Colombia and Brazil into the Atlantic Ocean. In terms of water flow, it is the largest river in the world.

Yeah, okay.

The Amazon’s a river. Gotcha.

But when I hear the word “Amazon,” I think about that tribe of women running around dominating their atmosphere and surroundings–extra tall, extra beautiful, mythical in nature and the dream of every red-blooded man because they will not be encompassed.

Why a dream? Because deep within the male of our species is the notion that he, individually–and he alone–holds the secret key to every woman’s pleasure.

The times I have seen TV shows or movies portraying these women, unlike my male counterparts, I am completely terrified and would like to run into a corner and suck my thumb.

They are gorgeous, powerful and willing to do anything necessary to keep their autonomy from being subjugated by hairier Homo Sapiens.

So even though I know the Amazon is a river in South America, the image of these domineering, dominating ladies has overtaken my mind and turned the word into a combination of a cartoon and a frightening nightmare.

What would I do if I met an Amazon woman? How would I handle myself in that situation? How would I establish my macho presence?

I would pee my pants … and then surrender.

 

Allegory

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter A

Allegory: (n) a story, poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one: e.g. Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey.

I am not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, the word “reality” became synonymous with “truth.”

Reality is not truth. Rather, it is our present fallen position.

Often we have to escape reality to climb a little higher to see over the mounds of our own stupidity. Yet in the past thirty or forty years, entertainment, education and even our politics have boasted their “open-mindedness” and intellectual pursuits by taking a snapshot of ongoing human behavior, insisting that it is a tableau of our destiny.

Isn’t that ridiculous?

So when I think about the allegory, I realize that it is almost a lost art–because allegory does exactly the opposite of reality movies and TV. The allegory says there are principles, feelings and ideas which are eternal and lasting–which only need to be passed through the prism of our present understanding in order to enlighten us.

Just because people are going through a season when they think God is mean, or doesn’t exist at all, does not mean that’s what they will feel in five years.

What is the consensus of human need on the issue? Find that–then draw an allegory, using the language of our times to present everlasting truth.

  • I don’t want society deciding what is valuable.
  • I don’t want to have a conversation with someone about television shows which extol violence, crime, graft, greed and incest and have him look at me with pity because I don’t understand that it’s “a true story.”
  • I don’t want to watch vampires suck the blood out of werewolves as witches place curses on hobbits who are out to pursue rings by killing dragons and believe that I am out of step because it is just necessary escapist fantasy. Maybe Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are attempts at allegory, but they are so cluttered with the inclusion of destiny that they lose the passion of free will.

I admire allegory.

I appreciate the way Jesus used allegory in parables, explaining the kingdom of God to people by referencing fish, coins, bread yeast and mustard seeds instead of merely bitching about the Romans and complaining about the boring Pharisees.

Reality is not truth.

Truth is finding a way to share what has blessed our species for thousands of years … in a contemporary fashion.

 

Agog

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter AAgog: (adj) very eager or curious to hear or see something: e.g. the tourists were all agog to see New York

I told her she did good work.

She replied flatly, “It’s just my job.”

She was my waitress at the restaurant, and she had done exceptional service to us, worthy of praise and a good tip. She just didn’t realize how valuable and rare she was.

As I finish Tour 2013 across this country, may I share with you a recurring reality? Something has died.

The carcass doesn’t stink enough yet for people to be aware, but it won’t be long. We have gone from being a nation which at least occasionally would be “agog” about our lives to being bored individuals who look at everything as “agig.”

We have lost the spontaneity, the humor, the adventure of solving problems and just the sheer joy of surviving a little bit of hassle in order to manufacture a victory which we can proudly initial.

I’m not exactly sure what we want.

  • Movies are bigger and more expensive than ever, but don’t have legs. People just don’t talk about them.
  • Music is over-produced, over-discussed and overwrought, yet does not create the simple stirring caused by a single Dylan guitar.
  • Government is more prevalent, but certainly less proficient..
  • Churches have become transfixed with the notion of “mega,” while simultaneously settling for a “mini” cultural influence.

We saw it coming. For after all, about fifteen or twenty years ago we decided to stop being impressed with anything. We called it “sophisticated.” “Laid-back.” We referred to it as “maturity.” We thought we were extraordinarily cool when we said, “I’ve seen that before.”

So on my part, I have made a conscious effort to avoid looking at anything as “agig,” but instead looking at it as “agog.”

Staying in motel rooms, I have learned to cook with only a microwave oven, making elaborate casseroles and meals. I am impressed with both the results and myself.

I am agog that people are still willing to come out from their homes and experience something new–something they’re not even sure they understand or will appreciate.

If we’re going to arrive at the full fruits of freedom, we must never cease to be in awe of the idea. For the only true way to ever lose your independence is to take it for granted.

And the only way you will ever be devoid of joy … is to stop looking for happy.

Aesthetics

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter AAesthetics: (plural n.) a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

I will never forget attending my first film festival.

I had written two movies which had been honored for consideration. I arrived at the event thinking I would be sitting around, munching on bagels and cream cheese, drinking coffee and discussing the soul of my flicks. I thought we would get into plot lines, character evolution and maybe even get a little emotional over the impact of the material.

Imagine my dismay when the dialogue among the filmmakers turned to the aesthetics of camera angles, lighting and focus. Yes, the focus of the entire three days of celebrating film was what we saw through the lens instead of what we felt in our hearts.

It left me cold.

It left me hungry for an appreciation of emotion over the general worship of decor.

I am often uncomfortable living in a society which turns the Academy Awards into a fashion show instead of a study of theatrical application. We seem to be more concerned about how our lives are furnished than with furnishing the next generation with a vivid description of our lives.

I know aesthetics can be meaningful–maybe even deep. But the greatest moments I’ve ever shared were heart-felt, usually in a simple environment with people I loved, who were undistracted and unwilling to do anything but drink in the moment.

May we always be cognizant of the beauty, the quality and the expansion of our efforts, and may we never forget that what truly lasts … is what comes from the heart.