TEACHER The active metaphor here is that G?d has set lessons all around us, and it’s our job to discover them; imagine everything in the Universe labeled with a great big “LEARN HERE” sticker. No one of us really knows…
Tag: WIP
Works In Progress. The “typing” part of Writing — and the most challenging.
Words to Bring Back: “Probity”
– Definition: n. Virtue or integrity tested and confirmed. – Used in a sentence: If our elected officials had more probity, there would be less Congressional probing. – Why: Actually, I’m not sure whether it’s the word or the concept…
365 Names: “Shekhina”
THE SHEKHINA, or “Presence (of G?d),” comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to dwell” (it’s the same root as “mishkan,” the portable desert G?d-tent AKA “Tabernacle”). There’s a seamless distinction between the Presence of G?d and G?d Itself. Tradition teaches…
Words to Bring Back: “Pink”
– Definition (per SubGenius usage): adj. Happily and/or militantly vapid and mediocre; commercially soulless n. One who or that which exhibits these traits. – Used in a sentence: adj. “I’m surprised to see the otherwise excellently talented Tom Hanks in…
Words to Bring Back: “Contretemps”
– Definition: n. a minor dispute or disagreement. – Used in a sentence: The current Administration* is one big contretemps after another. – Why: Because “kerfuffle” could use a bit of adulting.
Words To Bring Back: “Reverie”
– Definition: n. Abstracted musing; dreaming. – Used in a sentence: Since late 2016, my reveries have been somewhat disturbed. – Why: Although it comes from an Old French word meaning “dream,” it also reminds one of “revere” or “reverent.”…
Why I Love: Grocery Shopping
IT’S THE ANTICIPATORY PROCESS OF scrawling ingredients on a shopping list. It’s the simple pleasure of browsing a well-stocked and -stacked produce display. It’s the ritual of interacting with the people at the butcher/fish/cheese counters. It’s the Dad-inspired satisfaction of…
Words to Bring Back: “Pellucid”
– Definition: adj. Permitting to a certain extent the passage of light. – Used in a sentence: O, for a more perfectly pellucid presidency*! – Why: I’m in favor of this one strictly for the sound of it; the feeling…
365 Names: “The Presence”
THE PRESENCE is a more experiential-than-otherwise Divine descriptor. It attempts to portray the ineffable (nameless/wordless) quality of that-which-some-people-call-God, or what Freud’s friend Romain Rolland termed the “oceanic feeling” of being One with the Universe. It has the advantage of being…
Words to Bring Back: “Concatenation”
– Definition: n. The act of linking together. – Used in a sentence: One positive effect of the 2016 election was the concatenation of disparate progressives, some actually lucid. – Why: Who could argue with a pentasyllabic synonym for “gathering?”
365 Names: G?d
G?D IS MY GO-TO Name for the that-which-some-people-call-God concept. It’s adapted from the traditionalist Jewish spelling “G-d,” with a twist: the “?” denotes Its Greatly Unknowable aspect. There is no way I (or anyone) could reasonably explain or even talk…
Words to Bring Back: “Adduce”
– Definition: v.t. To present for proof or consideration, as an example; cite; allege. – Used in a sentence: Rod Serling could have saved himself a couple of seconds per episode if he had only prefaced his Twilight Zone introductions…