Fell is a bit of a funny sounding word. When you say it slow, it reminds me of Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor.
Regardless. When it is used in context, or any of its relatives are used, it seldom means a good thing.
He fell down the stairs and broke his neck.
The Stock Market fell 394 points yesterday.
I fell over from fright.
The government was toppled in one fell swoop.
Fall, (one of those relatives I mentioned) isn’t quite as bad. It can go in some different directions.
If I get up on that balance beam, I am sure to fall.
Summer was so hot this year; I will be glad to see the Fall.
There is a fall on the other side of the mountain which runs very fast and cold.
It is one of those words that can go a blue million different ways if we ask it to.
Fell. The past tense of fall. It could mean an amount of timber cut; a hill or stretch of high moorland, especially in northern England; a terrible or evil ferocity; an animal’s hide or skin; and on and on it goes before we even invite “fall” to the party.
I didn’t know what to write about today. So I decided to “seek out” ONE word, and it had to be at the very start my first sentence. I opened a random book, to an arbitrary page, and I pointed to an unsuspecting word. The word was fell.
This word, “fell” is hard to place at the very beginning of any sentence. For as many meanings as it holds, it almost never starts a sentence. Just try starting a sentence with “fell” at the helm.
This word is as multifaceted and able-bodied as any word out there. Yet, when it comes to finding a place at the front of the line, it is a wicked choice. It doesn’t quite fit.
And that, is a good description of our human selves. We each contain so many versions of ourselves. We possess talents, and characteristics, and a myriad of capabilities, at which we excel. We have things in our repertoire that we are so good at doing. Each one of us are Masters of this little skill or that.
But even with that, there are only certain circumstances where they fit. We can’t all be at the beginning of the sentence or the Belle of the Ball.
Perhaps Mimi is quite outstanding at threading a needle. But it will do her no good on a surfboard, in the waves of the Pacific. How about Jack? He can hit a 3-pointer from anywhere past half court. Just give the guy a basketball. But this talent offers no assistance in the Chili-Cook-Off of 2018. Or me. I can whistle through my nose while standing on one foot. I’ve yet to find the niche.
We are Masters in our lives. We have been given MAD Skills. We have things that we are amazing at doing. Our big trick is finding how best to use that Mojo, and make the world sing, because we are there.
I can hear the applause now. It is for you. And your bag of tricks.
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“Every artist was first an amateur.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.”
― Erma Bombeck
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