This is a photo series I took a few years back for my 30th birthday, but I think the range of emotions is fitting for this challenge too
The 30 days, 30 words Challenge
Greetings Dictionary Project Followers! I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the first day of September. Here in Tucson, it’s 93 degrees at 9:13 at night so the weather doesn’t feel much like fall. The season delivers in other ways though: the sharpened pencils, the full bookbags, the undergrads taking over town like army ants.
I’ve always loved September and the beginning of the new school year which brings with it new and exciting challenges. Inspired by the new academic year and month-long challenges artist friends have taken on, this month will be the first ever 30 day, 30 word challenge at the dictionary project.
For the month of September, a new word and new post will be added to the site every day.
I will write a post each day, and I invite you all to bibliomance (close your eyes, flip through dictionary, select a word) your own words (for all 30 days or for some of them) and post your words, definitions, and writing in the comments.
pre reqs:
1: a love of language
2: a curiosity about words
3: the desire to write
4: the desire to bibliomance
necessary tools:
1: a printed dictionary
2: a pen and paper or access to computer
3: an inquisitive mind
The idea for this challenge is not to strive for perfection in every post but rather to see where my mind takes me and to produce a piece every day, whether it be a few lines or a few pages long. I hope some of you will join me!
the dic·tion·ar·y pro·ject 
Loved the 30? photos and the invitation. I bibliomanced to embezzle: (to steal money entrusted to one) right in between ember and embitter in my Webster’s New World. Immediately, as my eyes hit the word my left thumb landed on, I felt the burning embers of anger fanned to flame thinking of all the suffering we have endured in this nation from the embezzling bankers who had been entrusted with our hard earned money. Am I embittered about it still? I think not; just more cautious about who I trust to operate in my best interest. What I want to know about financial institutions I deal with is: besides the commitment to profit, is there any other guiding principle?
Is there a moral compass in the organization? And are there any real consequences personally if bankers misuse my funds? And under those questions, the basic one: does my word to you and your word to me constitute a sacred trust, a life line that is strong enough to hold us together
when buffeted by the pushes and pulls of life’s daily demands? What I have seen happen in my lifetime is the erosion of that sacred trust leading to lost connections, broken life lines that leave us adrift. Reminds me of William Stafford’s A RITUAL TO READ TO EACH OTHER.
“And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider –
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.”
So, that’s my appeal and my promise. Be true to your word and I to mine.
That, just that, would be enough to replace the thousand contacts and the million words we agree to without reading, all the guarantees and protections to keep us from embezzling each other. Couldn’t we each just begin with: I will be true to my word? And of course, when I fail at that, I will own up to it and set about making the necessary repairs to the damaged life line connecting our mutual life.
Love this. A beautiful and thoughtful reflection. And that Stafford poem is phenomenal.
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