Today’s A.Word.A.Day is refulgent meaning shining brilliantly.  This reminded me of a poem by my favorite vampire from his pre-vamp foppish days:

“My soul is wrapped in harsh repose,
Midnight descends in raven-colored clothes,
But soft… behold!
A sunlight beamButting a swath of glimmering gleam.
My heart expands,’tis grown a bulge in it,
Inspired by your beauty…
Effulgent.”

But as you can see the word was effulgent meaning what?  Yes, shining brilliantly.  Two words of similar make-up meaning the same thing.

Would refulgent not better embody its original meaning of re- (back) fulgere (to shine), rather than be wasted with meaning effulgent?  Refulgent is more of a reflection of brilliance than an actual brilliance of its own.  Ef- a variant of ex- (from, out of) fulgere (to shine).  Both ending in -ent a variant of -ant (characterized by).

As far as I am concerned, refulgent is henceforth the reflection of brilliance (or a brilliant light) and effulgent is that which shines brilliantly.  Note how in the poem by William the Bloody, above, how Drusilla’s beauty shines brilliantly in its own right, it does not act as the mirror to reflect another’s beauty.

The opening verse to the poem by Allen Tate, “An Elegy for Jefferson Davis”, illustrates the proper use of refulgent, I think:

“NO more the white refulgent streets,
Never the dry hollows of the mind
Shall he in fine courtesy walk
Again, for death is not unkind.”

The streets did not shine brightly on their own, they reflected the light of the sun.

I am effulgent as a star among stars, within the company of heaven; I shall strive to be refulgent in my daily life, as it is my most worthwhile duty and joy.

Love is the law, love under will.

This one did not even come close to meeting my minimum standards, but I saw a good class or two and enjoyed hanging with my friends, so it wasn’t a total loss, but it was an embarrassment from the opening ceremonies to the end when I skipped out early to head to the OC for Mass.

It began with a video countdown to the event in question, I assume showcasing the Leather Community in the area hosting us (Los Angeles), where I saw five minutes of photos making it apparent that women have no place or standing in the LA leather scene.  This at an event where almost half of the attendees, volunteers, and speakers were female.

This was followed by a jaded, vindictive, old leather man ruining his standing as an elder in the community, in my estimation, by bashing the National Board for doing their jobs to the frustration of the local planning committee.  What was really sad about this was that I think he had some really good points about educating the community at large via the internet and making the classes onsite worth the price of admission, but who could hear it through all his vitriol.

It was also too bad the local planners were too busy blowing smoke up his bottom and complaining about how the nationals treated them to make sure the event was run on schedule, that the speakers had the info they needed, that all the speakers had something worthwhile to offer the audience besides an overview of their self-perceived awesomeness.

We run ours with precision, each class endlessly refined to transmit the most useful knowledge in the least amount of time necessary, so we can fit in yet another great topic.  We bring together the best of our speakers and our present and future leaders to share, we review the details of each topic to make sure no priceless information is skipped and the latest in policy or group behavioral trends are discussed.  We allow discussion.  Every attendee is an active participant in a great learning experience.

This is what LLC could and should be.  I gave the national board my card, I hope they call.

On a positive note, members of the planning committees for the next two LLCs attended my seminar and they are serious people, dedicated to making the most of their event.  I have great hope for the next two, and will definitely be there if I can be.

At the end of his talk, which was excellent, Tom pulled out his soap box metaphorically speaking to talk for two minutes about Management vs. Leadership.  I got more out of those two minutes than the rest of the talk, which is in no way meant to disparage the rest of the talk, I happen to have attended numerous time management things, making it a refresher, and had not seriously considered his points on M vs L before.

In a nut shell, management is

• setting priorities
• providing resources
• clearing roadblocks

If you are not doing these things, what are you doing?  Oh, and while it is okay to tell someone how to do their job at the beginning because that is providing resources, it is not okay to coninue to do so, that is micro-managing.

Leadership is like playing that classic children’s game, “Follow the Leader”.  The leader is on the same team as the rest of the players, with two minor differences:

• going first
• making it easier for others to follow

Again, if you aren’t doing that, what are you doing?

Follow the Leader

If your actions do not fit into either of these categories, then you are doing something else.  Stop it.

Some will find themselves in the role of a Managing Leader.  This is ok as long as you know when you are supposed to be blazing that trail and when you are supposed to be sitting back from the main action ensuring that the doers have what they need to get the job done successfully.

To me this is the keyword here: success–

Have you supplied the tools and resources necessary; been clear about priorities and desired outcomes; chosen the right person for the job giving them a support team, if needed; assigned finite, accomplishable tasks?

Not that you cannot occasionally push someone’s limits, but first you should know they are capable of rising to the occasion.  Have they proven this through repeated completion of finite tasks, perhaps using innovative techniques, surprising you by their methods or speed?

Good managers set their people up for success; good leaders meditate upon their personal processes and share this data with their team.  Good managing leaders do both, trying to give others the opportunity to do the work through effective delegation, availability, and mentoring.

On a Time Manangement note, I believe that task lists are key and the Remember the Milk is the best of them.  It has a Gmail gadget and an iPhone app (or Android and Blackberry apps if that is what you are in to), is fully customizable, has a free version, and the pro version is cheap ($25/year).

"The Cow"

Attending TBC was a privilege in its own right.  Normally when I speak to a group, I am speaking to a single community, come together for one purpose… finding and doing our Wills.  Here, however, I was surrounded by many different communities come together for a common purpose, to transcend the boundaries arbitrarily or even backwardly imposed on us by society.

Whether you were gay, straight, bi, transitioning, cross dressing, pansexual, vanilla, kinky (in any of its flavors), or fluid (a new term I discovered), there was acceptance, support, and a class or panel of interest.

What impressed me the most was the attitude reflected in every panel, class, and speech I saw… that we are all in this together.  That there is no us and them, we are one.  As the keynote speaker, Lee Harrington, indicated we are a web of complex ecosystems; but we are a web and I say that web is the universe we live in and share in the manifestation thereof.

This is a newer attitude for these communities from what I can tell.  They used to be about what they could get for their agenda and group, even if they had to throw someone else’s under the bus, and I can understand that.  As the Founding Fathers let slavery continue to get the votes of the South for Independence; as the black movement left behind women’s suffrage; as homosexuals and lesbians left behind the bisexuals… we are all guilty of it.  But there is a trend, perhaps even a movement within all these others, to lift each other up in Pride, to recognize the plight of the other in their own and that to me is Beauty.  They are realizing the Truth of Universal Brotherhood and it was inspiring to see.

I am proud to be part of this burgeoning movement, but also to be part of a church that has its foundations in these very principles.  Peace, tolerance, and truth, my brethren, this is where we find the Soul of the Universe.

Hermes Trismegistus, detail from a floor mosaic, Siena Cathedral, Italy

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Wordsmith.org’s Word.A.Day email previously featured this word in the week with the theme, “People who have more than one word coined after them”.

Wordsmith.org gave the following meanings:

adjective:
1. Airtight.
2. Not affected by outside influence.
3. Relating to the occult sciences, especially alchemy; magical.
4. Obscure or hard to understand.

I am on Hermetic.com and part or the Hrmtc Underground… does that mean I am Hermetic?

1. I am not airtight; I am semipermeable, as are we all. Yay, skin!

2. I am affected by outside influences, no matter how I wish not to be, sometimes.  But then, if I were not, that would make me unchanging.  This would be a mistake, especially for me.  Creatures require change and growth and as a Gemini I require it constantly.  To change without outside influence would be either arbitrary or uninformed, and not worthy of the effort in my opinion.

3. I do relate to the occult sciences :-)  I am magical.  Not only do I participate in the basics, invoke in the morning, banish at night, but I often embark on lengthy working to accomplish life goals, material, psychological, and spiritual.  I am in the middle of one now, which I will tell you about when I am finished.

You know the hardest thing about workings? Dedication to the repetition.  You must fulfill your intent every day without stopping… when you don’t feel well, or you are staying with friends in Atlanta, or you were up until 4am.  You still have to do the work.  People often get discouraged and stop because they missed a day.  Don’t stop.  Just keep going and add more time to the end.  Magicians persevere.

Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming...

4. I can be

Love is the law, love under will.

Julie Powell (Julie/Julia Project had the strange idea to make everything from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, in some weird attempt to learn to cook or to find herself or to fill her time post-911 when she was working for a company providing support to 911 families.  I am sure she was in need of something.  Her husband (Eric?), had the ingenious idea that she should blog about the experience, and I was left thinking that I wished I had thought of that, like my mom and pickle stackers.

I realized recently that I never write about what I am doing in my FB or LJ, because I am not sure that these things are truly interesting to my friends.  Do my coworkers really want to hear about my OTO work?  Do OTOers want to hear about my security training?  Who wants to hear about what I am writing and researching?  I do not know.  I need a different venue for these things.

This blog will be where I write about my Work.  Security and safety (my work) will have to find a different venue.  See you soon.