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 |   Second blog -- answers to an ocean of prompts |
 "Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." CHARLIE CHAPLIN  Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. David Whyte        This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts. |
For "Blog City Prompt Forum"  "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." — Charles M. Schulz What's your favorite chocolate? Why? Is there a special memory connected with the confection? ----- Dark chocolate is my favorite. I especially like it when it comes with hazelnuts in it. Why? It tastes good to me. I don’t care whether something is a good brain or heart food or not. Those who come up with such findings change their minds as if changing underwear, in the first place. With my likes and dislikes, my own opinions count.   A memory?: Two of them. 1. My husband’s first gift to me was a box of top-grade, fine Swiss chocolate. 2. When I was very little and was having a temper tantrum, my mother would have me lick a tiny bit of chocolate. We always had a stack of chocolates at home. That alone goes to say what kind of a kid I was.   For: "Space Blog Group" Prompt: Jon Little (they/them)   ’s "Invalid Item" . Do you believe in "little green men" "gremlins", or the "bogeyman?"--- No. Even if they existed, they would be too afraid to come to our earth, especially if they knew how easily we always pick fights and get into such violent wars with one another. I bet, however, since such stuff entered our imagination, it might have been created somewhere in the vast universe for I believe imagination/mind creates stuff or makes the imagined situations come true. |
| For "Blog City Prompt Forum" Prompt: Have you ever attended a Writer's Workshop? ---- Yes, many years ago, say more than half a century. Since I was studying lit at the time, it was the thing to do. Although many still attend those and I get invitations all the time, I don’t think a Writer’s Workshop will benefit my writing at all, except for making friends with like minded people and having a good time, which is exactly what we are doing here in WdC. Except we pick and choose what we want to do. Another reason for me not to attend a writer’s workshop is, I work alone much better. For: "Space Blog Group" Prompt: LMs❤️BrewinMagic  ’s "High in the Sky" . Does faith play a role in your life? If so, tell us about it. If not, why?---- Yes, the role faith plays in my life is central and a big one, but I don’t make an issue of it in the company of others. It is a very private thing for me. It feels like, if I made a big to-do about it, it would get hurt by the thoughts of others. This is partly because there is a big difference between faith and fanaticism since fanaticism is the way most seem to treat their faith. Then, there is the emotional factor that I treat my relationship with the divine like a jealous lover. |
| For "Blog City Prompt Forum" Prompt: Write about culture for today's Blog entry. ---- This depends on what you mean by culture. In its most basic form, culture is the name for growing microorganisms in a certain medium placed in a petri dish, possibly in a lab. Otherwise, it may mean a set of shared values and practices of a group or it may mean customary anything. It may also refer to gained knowledge, excellence of taste and enlightenment. Since each group’s or nation’s culture may be different, whoever is deemed to be cultured in one society may be seen as a vulgar ignoramus in another. Then, if you shave the word down, you end up with the word “cult.” Now that’s something to think about, isn’t it! The culture we generally refer to in our lives, however, not only deals with the material but more so with the abstract, such as ideas, education, beliefs, tastes, and attitudes. This shared culture in a society democratizes that society, and in our time and place, it may well refer to the mass media, politics, religion, and learning in general; however, it doesn’t necessarily mean elitism. Most people mix culture with elitism, which, IMO, is a serious mistake. Being aware of the needs of the society--as to the importance of its history and traditions, its current output in terms of the arts, written material, press, and the willingness of the citizens to engage in civil dialogue—is what makes us cultured individuals who add something to the culture we live in. I, therefore, believe that each one of us is obligated to gather as much knowledge in those areas and not shy away from the positive give-and-take of ideas and opinions or fear those who work against the best interests of our culture. For: "Space Blog Group" Prompt: From ♥noVember tHiNg♥  ’s "Dinner at Eight" Select a poem from this book and write about it. "Apple Autumn" ----- I so love the first stanza of this poem. Very few poets and writers can use adjectives that may refer to several things in a short stanza. I mean “crisp and clear” for sure, where the two adjectives define the morning, apples, dawn, and the sounds of a typewriter. This stanza alone is a very strong poem because through descriptions, it hints at several emotions, such as appreciation, nostalgia, delight, etc,, without even naming them. Another reason I like the poem, however a secondary one, is that it reminded me of one home my family had with seven apple trees in one part of the backyard. We raised our children there, and in my opinion, it was the best place we ever lived in. Then, the kids grew up and we sold the place and moved down south, to find out that, like apples and everything else, what we loved was made to last for only a season. |
| For "Blog City Prompt Forum" Prompt: What are your weekend plans? ---- I don’t make plans for weekends or any other day, aside from the routine things. Since anytime I make plans, something happens to mess with them. Then, weekend plans are for people who cannot find the time to do things during their hectic weekdays. For me, the only good thing about the weekend, mainly Sundays, is that I don’t get unwanted calls. Unwanted calls, usually on the landline, which I keep only for routine business stuff, are terribly annoying. Thus, I made it a habit to say that I don’t buy, support, or donate over the phone. Usually though, the annoying calls come from crooks posing as agents from the Social Security, Medicare, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, or vehicle warranty stuff. AT&T shows the invalid numbers and VOIP calls on the Caller ID but doesn’t give me the option to block those numbers, while I can do just that on my cell. I don’t know why the same company can let me block numbers on my cellphone and not on the landline. It must have something to do with their business plans. Surely, when it comes to the business plans of big companies, the consumer is the one given the short end of the stick. For: "Space Blog Group" prompt: From winklett  ’s "Backdoor" .An uninvited guest (a memory it seems). What would you do in these situations? ----- I know this beautiful poem from long ago. And yes, memories have a way of sneaking in through the back doors of the mind. What to do when this happens? I am usually disconcerted when a memory sneaks into my mind and I never plan ahead for it. Yet, this happens often, and I usually let it play its course, but then, I try to keep busy and get my mind occupied with something else to tear it apart from the claws of remembrances. I remember reading somewhere of an enzyme that aids in reviving old memories. It makes me wonder why anyone would want to do such a thing unless treating a trauma, which should be done in the presence and under the guidance of a professional, anyway. On the other hand, chances are all memories can be considered traumatic: the bad ones because, when we recall them, we live through their unpleasantness once more, and the good ones. we live through them, feeling we’ll probably never experience such good times ever again. In either case, we feel sadness or even grief. Who needs that! Still, something in nature, an inflection in someone’s speech, a song or a poem, even a scene in a fictional book can trigger memories. A great friendship bond, a lover’s gaze, the recall of a success can travel through our minds in a split second, transporting us into past experiences. Many people value such memories as it gives them a pat in the back for having lived through those good old times. Such stuff we may hold close to our hearts and may even think ourselves lucky for having had those times in our lives. Yet, isn’t this living in the past? Isn’t this a throwback, rather than a vision for future? I am not very sure that memories are as valuable as we make them to be. As Haruki Murakami wrote, ““Memories are what warms you up from the inside. But they’re also what tears you apart.” |
| For "Blog City Prompt Forum" "If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand. "Author Unknown Discuss how you felt reading this quote. Did you immediately think of someone special or a time in your life? ---- Funny, about how I felt about this quote. You’d think it would remind me of my late beloved husband or some time in my youth or something to do with my children, but no. My first reaction or thought was about God. Although I stay away from religious or spiritual stuff online, this is what I felt immediately when I first read the above quote. Each time something happens, good or bad in my estimation and in the short or the long run, I find His hand in it, and that makes me smile whether it may involve the entire evening sky or the entire creation with all the universes in it, I cannot say. For: "Space Blog Group" Prompt: From Jeannie  ’s "Prince Remembered" . Who is your favorite musician? What do you like about them?--- Needless to say, I like all music. For liking so many different kinds of it, it is difficult to say I have a favorite musician. Yet, narrowing it down, since I had a bit of training in classical music, I’ll have to pick Beethoven. After all, Fur Elise was the first small piece I had learned to play. Plus, when a kid, Beethoven was the one musician whose life story I’d read. From that book, I gathered that he had music in his mind and only that, and strangely enough, he was deaf. He would walk the streets, thinking, composing, and talking to himself, which made people believe he was somewhat off and children followed him making fun of him. When in concert, he would stop performing if the audience was not paying attention. He was a character all right! Whether he might have been a grumpy person or he was misunderstood, Beethoven lived in his music, and I truly appreciate the output from such a dedication. Then, as the result, it is that fantastic music he created, stretching all forms and previous musical norms to unleash emotion inside his symphonies, concertos, string quartets, piano sonatas, chamber works and even an opera. What wasn’t understood in his time now is considered to be the greatest music of all time. Imagine that, more than 11 billion miles away from Earth, the Voyager spacecraft is, at this very moment, carrying a gold vinyl record containing two pieces by Beethoven. Now, that's something! |
| Prompt: "Knowledge is love and light and vision." Helen Keller Use this quote in your Blog entry today. --- Who could argue with that quote! Knowledge above everything else is a state of awareness. It is gained through experience, learning, observation, and being able to act effectively on the accumulation of one’s capabilities. Then, love is the balancing act that governs these capabilities. As to Helen Keller, she could feel the importance of knowledge, and this is evident in the way she describes it. Her knowledge and the difficulty of obtaining it, due to her disability, made her aware of the world and the beauty of it, once she learned to appreciate life in general. I believe by light she means grasping and understanding and by vision she means penetrating into the meanings of things. Yet, these two very important parts of knowledge would be dry and monotonous if they were not encased in love. Then, when we offer to others anything wrapped in love, it is always one of the most beautiful things in life. Prompt:x The T Lady x ’s "Go to Sleep, Little One" about a baby that will not go to sleep. How do you get a baby to go to sleep or if you have never had children what do you when you can't sleep? ---- It is different with every child. My first one needed a long stretch of conversation while he was in bed and I sat next to him. It was something close to a therapy session. He wasn’t too much into listening to stories. He wanted to talk about real life events, rehashing what happened etc. To this day, he likes conversing with me on the phone for at least an hour each time he calls. My second child, although he, too, is now a big conversationalist, never needed that bedtime support. His eyes began closing before his head hit the pillow. In my case, in old age, I always fall asleep while listening to something either on YouTube or elsewhere. I guess I could fall asleep on my own, too, but I like having fun more. |
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