An AuthorsDen Journey:  Up Close and Personal

According to data compiled by our friends at AuthorsDen headquarters, I have been a member of this unique club since 2008. I know that is not a record, nor is it a bragging point. It is just a fact that rather astounds me. I never intended to hang around this long, to write as much, nor even to soak up the camaraderie that pulls us all together. But I have treasured every minute, even though I am basically a recluse, an introvert, and the last person to volunteer for anything.

To add to this mystery, I have never met even one other member among the thousands at AD, yet I feel I know many of you right down to a few of your hidden secrets (I nearly wrote the word you were probably expecting.) It wasn’t until last night that I finally “got it.” And it has very little to do with reading, writing, or arithmetic. Instead, it swims, flutters, and submerges itself in a universal bond of friendship that yearns to be seen and heard, yet it rarely is heard or seen.

Last night I watched two different videos that showed me what happens when two very different young ladies presented themselves at venues that would frighten most of us into permanent recluse-ism. Instead, they awakened a universal emotion that is almost beyond belief. Their names: Taylor Swift and Shakira. Each was on a world tour (2019 and 2020), but they were still sending out positive vibrations 4 and 5 years later. In contrast, their fans were singing along, and hyper-ventilating, or doing something very near the point of sublimating a massive spiritual ecstasy.

Two ladies, two different styles, very gifted performers, and very modest in their concern for self, who are totally focused on their audiences. I watched both videos from beginning to end. I don’t believe that Elvis or Michael Jackson ever sent their followers into a rapture-like state of approval as did these two gifted performers. Their followers were mostly young, and they needed to be. Otherwise, the needed energy to expend would have been too much for the old-timers’ fragile lungs and pounding hearts.

Shakira has amazing vocal skills, surpassed by her dancing skills, surpassed by her choreographic skills, surpassed by her organizational skills, surpassed by her personal mesmerizing skills, surpassed by her togetherness skills, surpassed by her ability to touch souls in a unifying way, surpassed by her unique power to elicit pure love from her audiences. She is part of them, and they are a part of her—regardless of race, color, occupation, and other mundane descriptors. Her sex appeal is off-the-charts sexy right down to her two famous butt-cheeks that seem to exist in a world of their own, and are well-acquainted with the body language of love. Yet she emits nothing that is offensive. Show me a preacher of any religion with a fraction of her power to attract, and bring about such sheer joy, and I will show you a mythical show-off.

Taylor Swift is taller and less curvy, but with all the above attributes on a more focused level, constrained, and more intellectual, yet her followers love her also with a passion that exceeds normal limitations. She sings, dances, writes, plays a guitar or piano, and has an amazing sense of timing and casualness. She is also very polite and thanks her audience with sincerity. It leaves me to wonder “does she really need an awkward-looking, roguish football player in her life?”

To sum up: Put all the politicians, the moguls of industry, the teachers, the preachers, the do-gooders, and the wannabees from around the world together, and they could never create a tiny percent of the love, attention, respect, and togetherness that these two ladies elicit. It is a dominant feminine trait, better left in the care of very talented ladies. And that is all the more reason why we need more lady judges, teachers, entertainers, speakers, leaders, and writers.

I am pleased that a small but talented number of ladies have chosen to follow my meager postings on this platform. I take that to mean you approve of my strengths despite my shortcomings. At least, that is my story, and I am sticking with it.