10/09/03’s illustrious band:

Listen = Silent

Brought to you by the Internet Anagram Server / I, Rearrangement Servant at www.wordsmith.org.

The words listen and silent are anagrams of each other -- that is, they contain the same letters, which can be rearranged to spell different words. The cool thing about these two words is, instead of one sequence being a real word and the other a collection of shorter but unrelated words, listen and silent have roughly equivalent meanings. Same goes for Internet Anagram Server and I, Rearrangement Servant, in case you hadn’t guessed.

Check the Hall of Fame section on the web site for more examples. Among them you’ll see:

• Software = Swear Oft
  
• Statue of Liberty = Built to Stay Free
  
• Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one (my personal favorite)
  

See? The verbal equations balance, just like mathematical equations can. Isn’t that cool? Of course, when mathematical equations balance, when each side is equal to the other, the two sides cancel each other out and the problem is solved. Then it goes away.

My friend Magic asked me the other day whether this concept can be enlarged to encompass the concept of life in balance: If you balance the various aspects of your life, such as work and home or mental and physical, does that mean your “problem” is solved? And if so, do you then . . . go away?

Leave it to a magician to ask such a question. Magicians are the only ones who know where people go when they disappear, and they’re not telling. But if I’m silent and I listen, maybe I can figure it out for myself -- and then POOF! I’m outta here.

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