Looking for a Better Dictionary

It's entirely possible the four most misunderstood words in the English language are: Victory, Defeat, Certainty, and Serenity. In this possibility rests an enormous threat to the way we live our everyday lives....!

Victory is an idea that's been largely hijacked by those grinning faces we see on the pages of our newspapers and the screens of our television sets. The yelping, finger-waving pitcher....the brash, gloves-raised fighter....the scream of the hoopster sinking a basket over the crumpled body of his defender....the fist-pumping stock broker beating the big board (back when they were still pumping)....the award-winner hoisting their trophy and the successful candidate flashing their V-sign.

Such portraits in victory have the smell of gladiators succeeding at something largely by the act of defeating something. It's that American adrenalin rush we can all identify with, and yet aren't true victories more than beating rivals and destroying losers?

Defeat, too, wears a familiar look most days. Players at the end of the game sunk into themselves on the emptied bench....racetrack betters tearing up their tickets in disgust....sprinters collapsing after the failed dash....the smoke and fire of a smashed car at the far end of the Indy.

Defeats like victories are all too often defined in this culture in terms of raw, lusty competition. How better might they be experienced deep within ourselves? Deep inside where the only competition is really with us? With our own best standards of what is the good, the virtuous, and the right? That makes any victory or defeat more inescapably real. Perhaps less seen but surely more felt!

As for certainty, here is an idea which has lately come to dominate every vestige of life. From televangelists to terrorists.... church leaders to gang leaders....generals to 2nd lieutenants....politicians to pundits....my Uncle Abe to your Uncle Willy. There is little doubt in the minds and the mouths of true believers. Especially when -- like now -- things are coming loose at the joints, and it's hard to be sure of anything.

At one time we had little podiums in parks and dim corners in coffee shops where certainty like this reigned supreme. Only these righteous prophets had small audiences, whereas today's cable networks and political blogsites can reach tens of millions. In moments. Once imbued with the gift of certainty, these strutting oracles can sow anger and discord faster than calm and unity can ever hope to repair.

Enter the last of our fractious words: Serenity.

Here is a state of being forever pursued but strangely understood. Is it the bliss that drink and drugs can bring? The diversion that sex and power can yield? The comfort of love, the safety of family, the intoxication of wealth, the security of truth, the ecstasy of faith?

Well, yes, all of that sounds about right! Only where to find all of that this side of paradise? It's the question that has somehow prompted our species to be forever on the move. From its earliest days in dark trees right up to its latest days in gleaming towers. Where and when and who will be the end of the chase...? When all's said and done, perhaps that too can be found only deep inside us.....

.....a frontier most of us have yet to cross.