Everyday Canvas

Weakness, Demons, and Decoratively Guilty

Prompt: If you could eliminate one weakness or limitation in your life or in the life of someone you know or even a story character, what would it be?

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Only one weakness? I should count the ways. Instead, I’ll generalize it and pick the main one.

My weakness is gluttony, and not only with food, either. My worst gluttony aims at books. Books have a charm, a kind of an enchanting magic, which I cannot resist. My house can pass up as a mini library, with books and bookshelves stashed everywhere, even though I supposedly eliminated some of the books I already read, but then, whenever I eliminate one book, I get at least four more. Since the e-readers, Kindles, and Nook showed up, my buying paper books has somewhat lessened, but now, in my Kindles and in Amazon, I have around 4000 e-books, waiting to be read, which I do, but I’ll never get to all of them, even if I were Methusaleh. No life is that long. I need at least ten lives, and I need Amazon, B&N, and my house to store and keep my books all through those lives.

I don’t know how I could eliminate this weakness, but chances are I would never want to. Unless someone comes up with a creative solution. How about a brain chip that reads a book, any book, in a few seconds. Probably advanced computers can do that. Why can’t I! *temper-tantrum*

prompt: Isabel Allende says in her novel, Maya, “Our demons lose their power when we pull them out of the depths where they hide and look them in the face in broad daylight.”
What do you think of those things Allende calls demons? Are there any such demons you can think of that are hiding deep inside you or in someone you know that could inspire a story, novel, or poem? How?
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Too bad we all don’t have our personal Yodas to teach us how to use the lightsaber or fix the stuff in between our ears. Neither do we have Harry Potter’s gall to face the dementors. Still, I believe we can do something about them. If we can’t succeed to eliminate them immediately and for good, we can still use them to our advantage.

Demons usually hide in our insides, and every once in a while, when we least expect them, they make their presence felt. If the demons are the pulling-down kind, one way to evade them is to concentrate on something happy. That could be a memory or a present-day occasion. Once we laugh or find something to be happy about, the demon will tire or walk away or get back into hiding in their shell.

One thing about demons, they don’t like fighters. If we fight them, they retreat. They may show up again dressed in different garbs, but eventually, they will lose their power. I don’t know of any inner demon anyone was successful to hack in one day. So, we have to take our time with them.

My demons have to do with past experiences so far away in my life that even their memories have become strangers by now, but they had been quite powerful at times. They sometimes showed up as anger, sometimes as sadness, and sometimes they caused me to clam up. Since when it is fight or flight, I usually choose the flight option, which is my modus operandi, but I always did something about them or to them even when I was fleeing. That something had to do with the arts of any kind.

Then I began to address them, ask them questions, and argue with their viewpoints. I found that as harsh and cruel as they seemed, they were there to train me. Once I began dealing with them, they shapeshifted like mighty dragons turning into earthworms to cultivate the soil. Could I eliminate them? Absolutely not, but I use them. I use them in understanding others; I use them analytically and as examples and analogies; then, I use them in my writing.

Our lives belong to ourselves with their demons and angels. If we don’t use them, who is going to?

Prompt: It's one week into January...what do you make of people who still have their Christmas decorations up?

I still have the wreath on the front door. You tell me what you make of me.