Word Euphoria, One Sound at a Time

(Dear Friends, these paragraphs below may appear to be total nonsense unless I first explain that they are meant to be a celebration of words and their melodious sound. I found a few lists of what people felt were the most beautiful sounding words in the English language, and I took the words and pieced them together in a sort of prose poem. So, that is what you have below: a celebration of the most wonderful sounds in the English language!)

Oh, melody, oh, beauty. The lyrical sound takes a shape; mellifluous music flows and the redolent word entices. An elixir so secret that only the poet knows. Dulcet tones wafting freely with no author. Extraordinaire! Gossamer threads of reverie touching another.

Nightingale heralds, wood thrush embellishes, peacock astounds.

Epiphany bubbles forth: luminescent, illustrative, delicious —succulently filled with the intonations of harmony. Resonant, yes, ever so subtle. Nothing superfluous.

Evanescent and ephemeral these echoes may be, but yet alluring and enticing themselves into memory.

Allegory: precipitous terrain without a guide. The mist departs.

Sweet serendipity collecting its members: sea-foam green and tangerine merging into aquamarine. Glistening azure.

Balancing cinnamon, a dollop of fudge and sweet lavender, what to choose? A lollypop of all? Serene shapes flourishing in chiaroscuro—a velvety overlay with chimera at the edges. No mere disconnected paraphernalia here; all woven together.

Salvador in paradise… him?? Finding sanctuary in the Elysian fields, halcyon days hinting at the ineffable. Resurrection. Shining aurora above the citadel on the hill. Sylvan sights for sure: the autumnal Worchester meadow rich in harvest, bordered by a brook. No saturnine threats from the heavens, ever.

What? No meaning here? Think again.

The feminine sway: curvaceous line—smooth, lithe, dancing vivaciously. Or did he mean to say voluptuous?

A loquacious ingénue’s silhouette swishing into shadow, both of them sashaying to a chosen place more cozy. A fetching bride she might be? (Voices heard off stage): “Arianna, so narcissistic, and then her shenanigans with no cachet, oh vey.”

Henri in ennui, lackadaisical, stuck in the mud of shilly-shally. Dressed in melancholy for the party. Not enough courage for soliloquy.

Back from the boulevards of Vienna and down the cellar door, slowwwwwly, languorously, lugubriously. Sanguine and serene, listen there: suave whispers that curve and don’t collide—cursive forms meandering along. Pandemonium avoided; good for that!

Assuage the predatory and savage, conciliate with the raging.

Pensively flabbergasted at the marvelous, amazed when the enigma loosens its grasp. Conflagrations extinguished. Nothing askew. Acquiesce to the opulently miraculous. Silence, as awe envelopes.

Bamboozled no longer, dear whimsy, let us have more of it!

Stand By Me

Oh, wow, life’s little serendipities! Yesterday a friend introduced me to something that has really caught my attention: a group of people who want to inspire, connect and bring peace to the world through music, and the approach they have used brings the concept of “a connected world” alive in a really remarkable way.

What this group does is to have various musicians from around the world play the same song without actually coming together physically. So, for instance there are musicians in California, New Orleans, Paris, Italy, Senegal, Mali, South Africa, India, the Netherlands or wherever else being recorded singing or playing this one song, and then their parts, either vocal or instrumental, are woven together on a soundtrack and video. First you see one singer, then you see another and then another, but all the while the music that all of them are playing together is going on. As the scene shifts from country to country, one is always hearing this unified sound, so beautifully mixed together with all their contributions, totally connecting with the listener/viewer all the way through.

The blazing metaphor is unavoidable: people all contributing their talents, coming together to produce something that thrills millions of people. There are women, men, blacks, whites, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Rastafarians, long-hairs, short-hairs, old and young—and none of those categories matter in the least bit. It is the coming together that matters. Music is so totally a universal language, and it extremely powerful in the way that it can unite us regardless of our political, ethnic, geographical or ideological diversity.

It so happens that the most popular song from this group, with over two million hits on YouTube, is “Stand By Me,” a song that I have known since I was very young and which I have enjoyed over and over throughout my life. The basic lyrics go like this:

“When the night has come, And the land is dark, And the moon is the only light we’ll see, No, I won’t be afraid, no, I won't be afraid.
Just as long as you stand, stand by me.
If the sky that we look upon, Should tumble and fall, And the mountains should crumble to the sea, I won’t cry, I won’t cry, no I won’t shed a tear. Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”

So many of us want to come together and find a way to dwell with one another in unity—to stand by one another. This song project is just one example of this longing, and there are so many others. I do know one thing though: the peace we are seeking will not come from nations or leaders or peace conferences or even from beautiful songs; it will come from us, the people of the world, discovering our own inherent peace. True world peace is not going to come about in any other way. How could there be world peace with a world full of unpeaceful people?

First we find peace within ourselves, and then we live a life that responds to the world from that place of peace. As more and more people discover that place of peace, automatically a grassroots movement of peace-recognizers will form without anyone really trying to do so. People will be choosing peace for themselves, one moment at a time, and others will be inspired by this example. They will recognize the benefits, want those benefits for themselves, and the candle flame will continue to pass from one peace pilgrim to another.

What is beginning in small ways amongst scattered groups of people will build relentlessly in momentum, and at some point it will be unstoppable. “Stand By Me” indeed! Slowing but surely, more and more peaceful people will stand together and will choose peace for themselves. It begins with each of us, one moment at a time.