How fortunate am I that a word in the English language can rub elbows with mythology, birds, and Shakespeare, three of my favorite things. April is no doubt a celebratory month, auspicious in its promise of rebirth, brought about by Easter and the awakening of the earth in all its glorious vibrancy. We often hear the word used as a cliché: "this auspicious occasion," yet it's a cliché that never surpasses its relevance. In the end we can thank Will Shakespeare for contributing the word auspicious to our language.
In 1553, the Latin noun, auspice came into English, literally referring to the ancient Roman practice of foretelling the future through observing the flight patterns and feeding procedures of birds. An auspex, the singular form, could interpret those omens, deriving from the Latin avis, meaning bird and specere meaning to look at. Auspice, the plural form of auspex, became known as kindly patronage and guidance. Over time, auspice came into use as auspices, frequently used as "under the auspices of," for example.
From the noun form developed the adjective auspicious, continuing the reference to a good omen. Shakespeare was the first known user of auspicious in his long poem The Rape of Lucrece. The villain Tarquin invokes heaven to "stand auspicious to the hour." It's unfortunate that the first use happened to be related to the Bard's treacherous subject, but there you have it, and we nevertheless are grateful for the inclusion of such a propitious word in our vocabulary .
Which brings me to my next point, that the presence of our own auspicious hours are the reason we continue on our path. Weddings, graduations, the birth of a child, a new job, retirement, a successful venture that shows promise--this is the stuff that dreams are made of and we need a word that describes such momentous, hopeful occasions. Enter auspicious--thank you, Will. But let's dig deeper.
According to the latest research from the CDC, teens especially are experiencing a decline in mental health following the pandemic, even beyond sadness and loss of hope. Suicide cases are up among this age group. How can we turn their cataclysmic world to something auspicious? As you can imagine, plenty of how-to self-help books are available, but if we look at the bigger picture, maybe our 21st century lives have been constructed on tenuous, insubstantial matter, specifically material possessions and a craze for technology, i.e., digital devices. Please understand, I am writing this post on a digital device, so I'm in no way suggesting that we throw the baby out with the bath water. But has our costly cell phone-tablet-laptop obsession as adults been the role model that our youth have needed to ensure not only their survival but also their peace of mind?
If you're one of my fellow baby boomers reading this, let me take you back to our parents' day, a time when they had to learn to cope with the Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Red Scare, a Cold War and later the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. They learned the value of money, time, talents, family, and a spiritual life. My parents never owned a credit card and paid cash for what they wanted or they waited until they could. They were resourceful and used their talents to create the life they needed to survive and be happy. And they knew their neighbors, depended on them for news and conversation, maybe a stick of butter or a cup of sugar.
These were not easy times, and yet they were auspicious times in the most positive way. The denizens of this life wanted their children to grow up with a more peaceful, easier life--a critical element of the American Dream, I suppose, and yet did we pass these tenets on to our children? Do our children's children understand clearly the promise of hope and renewal that drove their great grandparents to succeed?
I want my grandchildren to play outside, to use their imagination in their play, to know the names of birds and trees and flowers, to love reading, to write their thoughts and think about what they've written. I want them to love spending time with family and friends, and not always on a computer game. These precious moments comprise the touchstone of that auspicious omen that will foretell the future hope and happiness of our children.
Blessings, friends.
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