The A Team

A is usually representative of A, the first letter of the English alphabet: its alpha. We have alpha wolves, As on tests and a-ones in the military, but there are other As, too,  and some of them are not quite as clear as the others. There is apolitical and atheist, example. Neither of the latter do I understand completely. Does anyone?  I know persons as these latter, in both camps and they are interesting to behold and certainly to listen to. Apolitical, I suppose, means a person who is not a political party individual. These people claim that they sit on the fence regarding politics. (Seems to me, a kind of dangerous thing waiting to occur.) Politics happens in all phases of life. When humans congregate, they seem to arrange themselves in groups of some kind. Immediately, "politics" is formed. It is small P politics, but politics just the same. People-tics would be a better name for it. Since the beginnings of Man, there has been political activity. Any time a group bands together to get something done, they form a "party" whether they want to call it that or not. They work together to accomplish the goals  that brought them together. Perhaps, and usually so, another group has different ideas that they want put into place. The two groups, if wise enough, debate the issue and in some way either compromise and cooperate, which is the best way to do things, or they decide to become opponents and push their influence to convince all others that what they want is best.  What do we have? Politics. Unfortunately, in the animal world and sometimes the people-world, one or the other party decides that the only way to get their own way, is to cause war. Whomever wins, will rule from then on. Whoa, you say, that's not the right way to go about it! Exactly. But logic doesn't always prevail. Various forms of government came to be, so that every single person should somehow be a part in the decision making: thus democracy and hopefully, peace. Doesn't always work but it's worth trying.  Another group of As are atheists. They are perfectly lovely folks who do not find they want to believe in a god. They decide that there is no spiritual master plan and that they don't need a spiritual leader of any kind in their lives. They have a right to their own ideas, certainly in the Western world.  Religion is a private matter. Religion is also, a dicey matter because it is so intense, up close and personal. Even within religious groups, there is often friction of a mild kind. There is struggle for many of its members to envelope all and every tenet of their group.  Often they re-form to become another, more agreeable faction. Vast amounts of time is spent arguing about why they are what they are and how they hope to convince everyone else that their way is the best way. In a civilized sphere the debate is present and eternal, but the end result is basically, I'll build my church and you build yours. Atheists don't have a church but they do have an unorganized form of it when they gather socially and discuss their beliefs and debate why their take on it is right. The true meaning of A , according to Webster, is that "a" means "at" or "as one". In Latin, "a" or "ab" means "from" or "away". Seems somewhat contradictory. Our language, one of the Latin strain, continues, relentlessly, to fascinate, especially A.