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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. |
| Prompt: "I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to." Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings What does enchantment mean to you? ---- When I was a child, my small place (palace—I first typed by mistake) of enchantment was under the tables whose tablecloths hung to the floor. That probably started my lifelong need for solitude, at least now and then. Enchantment to me is a sudden feeling of delight as if hit by a magic spell. Usually, it happens with little things. Sometimes, my small places of enchantment stay in fleeting moments. The other day, while I was washing the dishes, a tiny bird watched me from the side of the roof. I took a photo of it since my cell was in my pocket, which isn’t a good likeness of it at all, but the moment was enchanting if only for a few seconds. Then, a few days earlier, I felt enchantment when a baby rabbit in the yard didn’t run away from me. Mostly, I find enchantment in a good book, a child’s face, a kind word my way, or the love shining in my family’s eyes. They are all my small places of enchantment. They are magic!   |
| Prompt: "The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life." William Morris Write anything you want about this this quote. ----- Granted, the details of daily life add to, embellish, and enhance the evolutionary steps of the human journey. Granted, taking an interest in every little thing we do and doing it with gusto takes our attention away from the hardships of life. I certainly agree to paying attention and taking a genuine interest in the details of daily life. Yet, does this point to the true secret of happiness? To begin with, I don’t think happiness is such a trifling thing. Yes, during the focusing of my attention on the mundane everyday things, I may be avoiding or covering up some suffering or negativity, but is this really happiness? To me, happiness is something different. It is something much more complicated and very hard to define. In fact, I don’t think there’s a definition of happiness that is accepted worldwide. Just google “What is happiness?” and you’ll see what I mean. There are so many definitions and such conflicting ideas on what happiness is. From this point of view, if we can’t even define happiness itself, how can we be sure of its true secret? And doesn’t this make William Morris’s quote a low-grade generalization? Maybe during the nineteenth century, William Morris’s time, such generalizations involving large concepts were tolerable. I dare think and hope that in our century, we will try to look more closely into what makes us human. |
| Prompt: What can be the result or results of trusting a wrong person with an important enough task or hiring a family member who didn’t know enough about the job? Have you ever had such an experience? ---- I have never hired a friend or a family member for anything, (I know better!); although, I may have asked them to do something or other for me unofficially. At times, however, I have trusted a wrong person with an important job, which didn’t fare our well. The thing is, you don’t know how capable a person is even if they have the credentials. Sometimes, the business owner, manager, or the person doing the hiring are desperate because there is no time left to search for the right person, and out of necessity, they hire just anyone even if something inside them tells them not to. Fact is, no one wants to hire the wrong person for a job because a bad hire drains energy and time, costs money, and may even hurt the reputation of the business. Then, if nothing else, it may lower the morale of the other employees. The best thing to do under such circumstances is to try to reassign or train that employee just to give them another chance. To avoid employing someone not suitable for the job, it is a good idea to talk it over with the others on the same level as the employer, meaning the triage team. Also, if the hire isn’t working right, an employer shouldn’t hesitate to talk to the others in his team even if it means lowering one’s personal pride. A good future employee should be a person competent and experienced, and they should be offered what they are worth. Good employees know their stuff, are motivated, and are eager to learn new skills. To find or to recognize all this in a new applicant takes a lot of mental energy. No wonder, it is said that most burnouts in companies belong to the hiring managers! --- Note for writing: A wrong person for a job could make a hilarious short story. Anyone? |
| Prompt: What do you think of sidewalk cafés? How about writing a description, a story, or a poem about one such café that you have seen or visited? === I think the sidewalk café idea is a worldwide phenomenon because I can’t think of any country I visited which didn’t have such a café even though the sidewalk cafés in Paris almost always steal the show in people’s imaginations. Sometimes, these establishments get so out of hand that they become sidewalk restaurants. One such place is situated across the street from the Metropolitan Opera in NY city. When visiting such a large and sometimes fancy place, the etiquette is to sit and wait to be served. If the café is not crowded or rather there are only one or two customers in a place with more than 10-15 tables, the servers might not notice you. Then you have to go in and ask to order. When ready to pay, if a check has not been presented, the thing to do is to catch a waiter’s eye and make a motion as if writing on one’s palm. Writing on the palm motion is recognized worldwide (I think). Even in distant countries, one can make his wishes known through this specific gesture. Then, wherever they may be situated, sidewalk cafés always attract the artistically inclined. Sitting at a sidewalk café while sipping an espresso is the finest way for writers to people watch, and authors past and present have made the note-taking or writing poems on a paper napkin the thing to do. In fact, it is said that even when the Germans took over Paris during World War II, one could still see people writing poetry on napkins while the Nazis strutted about. Curiously, a long time ago, in the East Village in NY city, I’ve witnessed a Poetry Slam taking place. This just goes to show the staunch resolve of poets to experience and reflect their environment. Surely, in the northern regions, the best time for sitting at a sidewalk café is Spring, Summer, and possibly early Fall, since during the frigid months, most of the cafés will move their sidewalk tables and chairs indoors. Talking for yours truly, in my younger days, I had a love affair with any or all sidewalk cafés. Nowadays, I am not very comfortable with exhaust fumes from the cars, but if they are not situated on a busy thoroughfare, the sidewalk cafés still hold their charm for me. |
| Prompt: What are your favorite quotes? ----------- I love quotes, but for the sake of space and time, I can’t list every single one I like. Thus, with the exception of the first four, every quote here is from a book I’ve read. This too shall pass. Don’t trouble trouble, till trouble troubles you. “Know thyself” attributed to t Socrates and inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. “You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction.” Bhagavad-Gita “Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.” Victor Frankl “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” Victor Frankl “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” Viktor E. Frankl “What is to give light must endure burning.” Victor Frankl When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?' Sydney Harris “You are your fate. Character is destiny.” James Allen “Circumstances don’t shape us, so much as they reveal us.” James Allen “Law, not confusion, rules the universe. Justice, not injustice, is its guiding principle. You attract what you are. You get what you give.” James Allen “The distinction between “something you know”, “something you are” and “something you have” is much more blurred than it seems on first analysis.” Richard Paul Hudson “Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenges; wish for more wisdom.” Jim Rohn “Don’t look for the street sign until you’re in the right town.” Randy McIntire “It’s not the bird that’s pretty, it’s the feathers.” Randy McIntire “By bringing out the best in others we bring out the best in ourselves.” Randy McIntire “Try to move from a feeling of “HAVE TO” to “GET TO.” With HAVE TO, you are a victim of the circumstance. With the GET TO, you are in control. Replace "have to" in your thoughts and speech, with "get to.” Randy McIntire “Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake.” Marie Beyon Ray “Classic transference happens when you unconsciously redirect feelings or desires created in your childhood or by life experiences to another person or object.” Joseph Murphy “Fear is a negative thought in your mind. Supplant it with a constructive thought.” Joseph Murphy “Not that paying intense attention itself is cheap. And maybe this is why we so often do our best to avoid it.” Peter Orner "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." Ernest Hemingway “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” Ernest Hemingway “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” Sigmund Freud “Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” Barbara Kingsolver “The trouble when people stop believing in God is not that they thereafter believe in nothing; it is that they thereafter believe in anything. In this century, 'anything' has included Hitler, Stalin and Mao, authors of the great genocidal madnesses of our time.” Charles Krauthammer “Politics is the moat, the walls, beyond which lie the barbarians. Fail to keep them at bay, and everything burns.” Charles Krauthammer “You can have the most advanced and efflorescent cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933.” Charles Krauthammer “Within stories is the healing and no evil can stand up to it.” Natalie Goldberg “Generating your own writing subjects is a true sign that you are becoming your own writer.” Natalie Goldberg “Writing is elemental. Once you have tasted its essential life, you cannot turn from it without some deep denial and depression. It would be like turning from water. Water is in your blood. You can’t go without it.” Natalie Goldberg ============ After I wrote this entry, I saw this quote: "Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you." https://tinybuddha.com For some reason, I like that one, too. It is going into my collection.  |
| Prompt: Tell us about someone you wish you could see again. --- Old age is frugal. We don’t want to overcrowd our lives with nonsense or unusable things. Yet, this is not so when it comes to people. People I love make my blood sing, and there are so many of them, and so many of them have charmed me enough that I can’t wait to see them or get enough of them. This is why, although the prompt is asking for any one person, I can’t pick a single one of the people I’d love to see again. So, I’ll write about all people as if a single entity. As I see it! The most amazing thing about people is that they can turn from angels and good fairies into demons and ferocious beings and back again, at the drop of a hat. This is a startling view, I know, but it is also like magic that makes who people are intensify in my mind’s eye. Who they are is warm and loving or who they are makes me shiver, even freeze, but that may change in an instant. So, I try to cast my gaze further and try to figure them out. While doing that, I try to figure me out, too, as I am one of them. Maybe just who people are changes with the moon. When the moon is full and is ringed with gold or silver, it may be the sign of sweetness. Then, when it dims and goes dark and missing-in-action, all is not lost because then, I can see the stars, knowing full well that the sweetness will be back in no time. Then, maybe I am just a witch hung up on the moon. |
| Prompt: Write a blog entry about what happened in your life today. ----- Oh, well! I guess today has been a learning experience or maybe a small-scale plot twist. Or I might have stepped in something that gave off out-of-this-planet vibes. The morning routine wasn’t so bad. It felt like any other day...until I sat at the computer. I had put it to sleep from the night before. It woke up fine but then, it froze. I had files I was working on, and luckily I had saved them. After restarting it, which took forever, I was able to bring up everything the way I wanted them, but this took at least 45 minutes. Then, I received a letter from the bank asking for the house insurance papers. ‘No, problem,’ I thought. ‘I’ll just scan and send them. Oh, oh! Now, I found out that the printer/scanner had gone kaput. It wasn’t doing so well for the last couple of months but I was able to get it going after a few tries, or maybe I should say, ‘life trials’. This time, no such luck! So I grabbed the documents and went to the bank. This, not the tellers but the only the upper-grade bank people could do. There was only one person working on the floor. She is someone I know and like, so I sat down to wait for her to finish a couple’s business. How could I know their business was a complicated thing! It took close to a two-hour wait. When they were gone, she took care of me. My business lasted less than 10 minutes. She told me, “You know, you could easily do it on your computer.” I told her I couldn’t since my printer/scanner had died. She told me not to bother trying to get it fixed. “Get a new one,” she said. She’s right, of course. So I ordered a new one, something that wasn’t planned but so be it. The thing is, I rarely use the machine, but once in a while something like this springs up and it isn’t there when I need it. By the time I got home to serve lunch, it was three in the afternoon. After that, so far so good! As I said earlier, PLOT TWIST!  Prompt: "Dare to dance. Leave shame at home." Hawaiian Proverb What are your thoughts about this? ------ Daring to dance brings to mind a dance style called bravura. The word points to the display of great daring and technical brilliance. I am not skilled at all with such dancing. On the other hand, I am guessing the proverb means something other than the dancing skill. If taken at face value, however, any gullible person believing it would start dancing to express herself or himself in the middle of a busy mall, supermarket, or any other public place. Imagine a few people like that around you while you are selecting zucchini in the store! So I am guessing, again, that the proverb advises not to hold back on what we can do, if what we can do expresses who we are. Within reason, of course. And definitely within the limits of law and social rules. |
| Prompt “Resistance and denial are two very different states,” says Andrew Himmel in his novel, The Reluctant Healer. In your opinion, in what ways are resistance and denial different from each other? -------- Denial rejects what obvious and what is not profitable in some way, only because facts of the matter overwhelm and there is no comfort in admitting to them. Denial is not only the opposite of acceptance. It is separate and insists on certainty even if there are no reasons or evidence for that certainty. Denial is self-important without a good reason. Resistance, however, accepts that certainty but pushes back on it, resenting its presence. Resistance has purpose whereas denial is without purposes. Resistance can be futile and baseless but it also can be the most principled and moral human endeavor on the face of injustice. This is resistance with purpose. Resistance with purpose works toward a solution, but it is not for calming anger and feeling important. A person is at his strongest when he is willing to walk away from such a resistance. That is why we must all walk toward where we should go rather than where we might go. |
| Prompt “There are two major pains in life. The pain of discipline and the pain of regret. The first weighs ounces, whereas the latter weighs tons.” —Jim Rohn Concerning any area of life, which one of the two pains are you better at? ==== Even though I am not a shining star, I am better at discipline, but if there is anyone to thank for it, I owe my “somewhat” discipline, pained or not, to the all-girls school I attended way back when. In those olden days, females were trained more strictly for achievement and production rather than for screaming their heads off on things they knew little to nothing about. As to the pain of regrets, I used to be quite good at it at one time, a much earlier time. Then, I re-evaluated my situation and decided to do away with regret altogether. My reasoning is that I did the best I could with the possibilities and the information I had at that time. Case closed! In fact, all cases of regret are closed. Oh, really? Although this is no biggie, Saturday, I had planned to go to the local library. A trip there and back that wouldn’t take more than half an hour, but I got busy and forgot all about it. Then, at night, when I realized what I didn’t do, “Darn, you idiot!” I scolded myself, but immediately. I realized that I was falling into the regret trap, and I apologized to myself.  Now, I’ll have to go to the library on Tuesday and pay late fees because our library is closed on Sundays and Mondays. That’s okay, too, since late fees, as well as donations, may help the library buy more books. And I am really good at paying for books. |
| Prompt: Today, I was reading Sidewalk Oracles and one of the interesting exercises was to randomly flip open a book page and read a line. Any line doesn't matter just the one line. As your day goes on, how many things happen to you during the day that connect with that one line. So grab a book, any book and discuss the one line... what about that one line? In what way does it connect with you or your life? Like for example In the book, the man said, "I cannot come right now" It was a couple of hours after I read that one line, the driveway repairman called and said he couldn't come right now. I said, to him, "I know." I had read it earlier. --- This is a great exercise. Except, during the rush of my day, I’d probably forget all about it and wouldn’t recognize it even if it came up again. Even so, I decided to try it. This morning I opened up a poetry book and came across a poem The Trout Map by Allen Tate. From it, is this line. “We walked a confident hour of victory.” Well, I was on my feet all day, mostly cooking, and as to that “confident hour of victory,” do little victories count? Like I didn’t break, drop, spill anything, or burn myself... yet! I’ll do this exercise again with some other book on a good, unrushed day, that is if I can find one.  Prompt: "There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book."~Josh Jameson Use this quote in your entry today. === Yes, there comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book. I just closed a book of fiction and vowed never to read from a certain famous horror writer, since this book was more politically biased than literary. The ads for the book never mentioned the author’s opinion-forcing tricks but they concentrated on the plot and the characters. I understand and respect the personal slants of all authors, but then, maybe this certain example happened because it has to do with the present-day politics and not the all-encompassing, good-for-humanity, personal or social concepts. I have respect for the opinions of everyone, but if the writer of a book, a book I pick with the idea of enjoying fiction, begins lecturing people through examples and innuendos on his present-day politics and tries to swerve the readers’ opinions, he is a dead duck for me. If he were to offer something that said the book was solely written for expressing his opinions, and/or even if the ads for the book had mentioned the bias and the intent of the book, I wouldn’t be so irked and maybe I would have kept turning the page. In general, whether I agree with the ideas or not, I don't like anyone's effort of pushing people into accepting anything under false pretenses and through the use of literature. Prompt: What brings joy into your life? === Just about everything I do, see, and appreciate, although I get tired a lot. It took a long time for me to find joy in everything almost always. I guess it takes a person a long time, until nearing the end of things, to find enjoyment in all things. This may be due to the fact that we don’t appreciate what we have and what there is around us, until we feel things will not be the same in a short while. I am not sick or anything, but I have been reassessing stuff during the last few years, and even on the most difficult days, I search and try to see the beauty and the myriad of enjoyable possibilities around me. Prompt: "Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity." P. T. Barnum Write anything you want about this. I so agree with this quote. We have literature because literature is the music of language and then some, as language is something humans have used since the dawn of civilization. Music usually expresses what other art forms cannot. Adapt music to language and you’ve got literature or at least some form of it. Then, added to the music, literature has ideas, philosophies, partialities, and reflections of the human experience. Moreover, as societies and understandings change so do their patterns of expression, as oral or written literature. Another plus is, literature encourages creativity with or without any training or education, letting most anyone try their hand in creating stories, poems, and novels. |
| Prompt: What do you think it means to be "judged by the content of one’s character"? If you wish, write a scene, a story, or a poem in which an individual is not judged by the content of his or her character, but by something totally different from it. ------ For this idea, we must first think about what the content of one’s character refers to. My question is can we really determine what one’s character contains even if we have known that person for decades? After all, some serial killers have been known as one of the most respected people of their community. Thus, the knowledge of the contents of one’s character is an iffy concept, to begin with. This makes the promise of judging a person by the criteria of their character is unreliable. Take a political person for example. Their words may drip with passion and compassion for the citizens, but their actions at other times and their words in their private life may show just the opposite. Mostly, such a person has a penchant for pretending to be who they aren’t, and worse yet, such people can resort to animosity and fake information about their opponents. In the same vein, the word content means what is held inside. Thus, the real content of one’s character is not the same as one’s reputation. Each person is born with an inclination toward one character. Life experiences evolve, alter, better or worsen that character. Some people aren’t even aware of what their own characters hold. My point is, since we can’t fully know anyone’s character’s contents, I lean more toward, “Judge not, that ye be not judged!” Of course, forming an opinion on someone's character makes us adapt to circumstances, but I think passing a clear-cut, unchangeable judgment on anyone's character is useless and baseless. |
| Prompt: write about a physical injury you or someone close to you had and how it made you feel. ---- One of my sons used to be impulsive, reckless, and yet clumsy. Usually, he landed on his feet, but there was this time when he decided to climb a huge oak tree in the backyard with reachable branches much higher from the ground. I have no inkling why or how the idea hit him. He must have picked up a string--yes, a roll of string, not rope. He must have thrown it over the lowest branch which was about 15-20 feet from the ground. Holding on to the string, he must have tried to climb the darn tree. He wasn’t a small kid at the time either. He was in his early teens. I didn’t know what he was up to, as a few minutes earlier, he was practicing his baseball pitch. There was a lull in the sound of his pitching, but I didn’t make much of it. We had a two-acre yard, then. I thought he was walking around or something. So, I kept busy in the kitchen. From the open window, I heard a big thud. I stepped out to the yard and spotted him walking toward me. His face had lost its color, and he was holding his left arm with his right hand. There was no blood, but from the looks of the arm, I immediately knew the bone was broken. My first thought was that he slipped and fell down while walking about. He had slipped and fallen down, all right, but up from the tree because the string had broken. Now, who’d climb that tree with the use of a flimsy string! I was upset, angry, and mostly in panic mode, and I was feeling like I was about to throw up. Just then, my husband came home, my knight in shining armor, and we took him to the ER. They set the bone there and put his arm in a cast. For weeks after that, I worried that the arm wouldn’t set right. Luckily, it healed with no scar or disability. People say, boys will be boys, but can’t they be boys without giving their parents so much crap? He is fifty years old now, and as I write this, I still feel nervous. |
| Prompt: What does making a fresh start mean to you? ===== Fresh start has to do with the stuff we may be upset about or it has to do with dealing with our own regretful actions in a situation. As I wrote earlier somewhere in this blog, at one point in my life, I decided to let go of regrets whether they had to do with the road not taken or the road taken. Since I am human, I am liable to regret both my actions and my inactions, but what does that serve? Nothing and no one. Thus, no spilled milk for me. The only thing I can focus on is the lesson learned and the hope for the right mindset in the future. For that end, I concentrate on becoming immersed in what I do without ruminating on regrets and beating on myself, so I can find a good amount of meaning in my days and a sense of satisfaction with life. This, I think is making a fresh start. A fresh start may also happen when, to no fault of our own, someone hurts or disappoints us. In such a case, it is a good idea to let go of feelings of being unjustly treated and move on to greener pastures with other people. This, too, I consider a fresh start. |
| Prompt: "The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind but the goodness of a person spreads in all directions." Chanakya Write anything you want about this. --- Short of becoming a saint, a person can spread the goodness inside her by feeling and acting as if he or she is in service of others all the time, just like the fragrance of flowers. A flower doesn’t care who smells its fragrance, it just lets it out for everyone. Like a flower, any one person can spread his or her positive energy, too. Even if one doesn’t have the means to help, there are a few simple things everyone can do for others, easily, like acknowledging the existence of others by greeting them with a smile, picking up a few pieces of trash if they see them, appreciating any kind of service with a thank-you, giving to the needy, and never badmouthing anyone. It is also a good idea to accept and respect other people’s ways of talking, believing, and thinking even if they seem to be very different. If a person can manage to make these things a habit, others may appreciate or even imitate him or her, and who knows, one day, this may spread to an entire community, city, nation, or even the whole world. Just keeping my fingers crossed! Prompt: Psychological trauma is described as a type of distress in the mind that occurs as a result of a painful event. How would you help someone close to you if they have gone through such a trauma? If a person has gone through an extremely stressful and disturbing event, which may have left them unable to gain control over their emotions and feelings, that qualifies as psychological trauma. This could be a one-time event or an ongoing one, for example, PTSD or living in a dangerous place or stressful relationship or the ticking clock like a scheduled surgery. What bad things happen to a person, it may take a while for them to get over it and feel safe from it again. When in the company of a traumatized person, we have to understand that, for such a person, there is no right or wrong way to think, feel, or talk, and we shouldn’t be judging their behaviors if we wish to help them. Distressed people need to feel what they feel when they feel it. They don’t need their feelings minimized or looked down upon. A few things I can think of that may help a traumatized person by a layperson are: • to encourage them to get moving, exercising, etc. • to befriend them and accept them as they are whether they want to talk about their trauma or not. • to encourage them to ask for support. If they reject professional counseling, then having them talk to a family member, a friend, or a clergy person. • to have them reconnect with friends, old or new. • to introduce them to other people, encouraging them to seek new areas of interest • to encourage them to do volunteer work since helping others challenges the sense of helplessness |
| Prompt: What kinds of meanings does the word “stuff” hold for you? Can you think more meanings of it than what’s in the dictionary ======= Such a versatile word is “stuff”. It is derived from Old High German stoffōn, stopfōn (“to plug, stuff”) and Old English stoppian, changing its colors over the centuries many times over. As a verb, it means to fill something like a hole, receptacle or some space, like stuffing the turkey. An angry person may just tell you to stuff it, but I am not going into the detailed meanings of that here. Suffice it to say that in informal British use it means the rejection of something like, “Stuff that Gym Class!” If you eat too much, you might feel stuffed since you have stuffed your face. When someone berates you, they may be knocking the stuffing out of you. As a noun, it means any kind of matter or activity, real or implied. It also points to belonging. When an author says, “my stuff” he or she is referring to their work. In fact, you put any adjective or noun in front of stuff, and what you say takes a whole new meaning, such as icky stuff, red stuff, muddy stuff, girlie stuff, guy stuff, war stuff, animal stuff, school stuff, vacation stuff, house stuff. Talking about house stuff, your house may be full of stuff, old stuff, new stuff, retro stuff. It may be so stuffed that you may want to move to a different house to escape from all that stuff. At that point, if someone asks you what’s on your mind, you may answer with a sigh, “Stuff!” This answer here or in other situations may also point to delicate things that are either too painful or private, which you don’t want to go into. Related to this, people can have hard stuff, rough stuff, hot stuff, cool stuff, etc. In the same vein, how about zombie stuff, monster stuff, vampire stuff, political stuff, big stuff, bad stuff, machine stuff, hate stuff, love stuff, school stuff, family stuff, electronic stuff, Hollywood stuff, relationship stuff and so on… Then, if you know what you are talking about, they’ll say you know your stuff, or they might say, “she’s some stuff,” which may have a dubious implication, just like when they might say, “she’s strutting her stuff,” while they might think you are a stuffed shirt. Of course. on the positive side, you might be the stuff of their dreams or the stuff of legends, especially on Christmas when you are their favorite stocking stuffer. Now, that’s stuff that matters, and it’s a lot of stuff. stuff ensues unseen we slip, we slump, we rummage world turns on its head |
| Prompt: “As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk63Psr3wzY Prose, poem, or story: How do the song or the windmills of your own mind affect and inspire you? ----------- The Windmills of your Mind is the theme song for the movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. In the plot of the movie, there are two high-achieving main characters: the millionaire Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) who concocts a scheme to rob a bank and Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway), an investigator for the bank's insurance company. These two play a chasing game (involving both the crime and the romance), at the end of which no one totally wins. I have always loved the song, though not the movie so much, because sometimes my mind works in circles, too, but in the personal sense and when I am writing. I think this happens because of my content-related associative mind or thinking=feeling system, which detects a novelty when it hits on a related bunch of memories. Thus, the song. Even though I have the Sting’s version in the prompt, I like the original one as Michel Legrand sang it. In its entirety, the words to the song are: “Round Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending on beginning On an ever-spinning reel Like a snowball down a mountain Or a carnival balloon Like a carousel that's turning Running rings around the moon Like a clock whose hands are sweeping Past the minutes on its face And the world is like an apple Spinning silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind! Like a tunnel that you follow To a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern Where the sun has never shone Like a door that keeps revolving In a half-forgotten dream Like the ripples from a pebble Someone tosses in a stream Like a clock whose hands are sweeping Past the minutes on its face And the world is like an apple Spinning silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind! Keys that jingle in your pocket Words that jangle in your head Why did summer go so quickly? Was it something that you said? Lovers walk along a shore And leave their footprints in the sand Was the sound of distant drumming Just the fingers of your hand? Pictures hanging in a hallway Or the fragment of a song Half-remembered names and faces But to whom do they belong? When you knew that it was over Were you suddenly aware That the autumn leaves were turning To the color of her hair? Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind” |
| Prompt “The moon in all her immaculate purity hung in the sky, laughing at this world of dust. She congratulated me for my carefully considered maneuvers and invited me to share in her eternal solitude.” Empress Shan Sa Prose, poem, or story: How does the moon affect you? --- Full Moon (A Haibun) Once, she had thought, "That silly moon is just a pebble in the sky, secretly believing it’s a precious gem and not realizing that it only reflects the splendor of the sun." playing peek-a-boo the full moon foolishly proves it’s made up of stone One night, deep in the woods, under the glow of the haunting full moon, he pulled her to him for a kiss, while shadows danced ominously against the trees. Ever since, she has been howling at the moon. deceiving glitter a freaky caricature validates love's pain |
| Prompt: "Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead. That is where your future is." Ann Landers What are your thoughts about this? ----- Good advice, I think, especially for young people with quite a number of years ahead of them, theoretically speaking. Yet, what do you do about memories, good and bad or in-between, that start popping up in the mind? Fact is, I kind of like them. I am not afraid of any of them, and if anything, they make good writing material. The only problem with looking back or remembering has to do with regretting things, behavior, or decisions and letting the past to hold a person back. Thus, sometime in my twenties, I decided to regret nothing as even the worst moments have taught me a thing or two. There’s nothing one can do about them, anyhow; therefore, the only thing that can affect anything in life is the present and the future. In my case, I’ve also let go of the future because the future may portend things that I could worry about, too, if not for myself, then for loved ones around me. So, I think it is best to live in the present moment because the next hour, let alone the next day or month or year, isn’t guaranteed to be a happy one or to exist at all. |
| Prompt: Where would you fly right now if you could hop in a plane? ------ I am not too crazy about air flights anymore. They have become a pain. Yet, if they were to revert to what they were, say about 30 years ago, I would go to NYC since my older son lives there, but if I could go to just anywhere without any thought to family or other concerns, I would probably go to Ireland and then to Scotland. This is because I love what Irish authors of any genre do so well with their prose and language and the way they present their country via their fiction. That is why I would like to go there. Although I know the Shannon airport and its environs, since we stayed there overnight, it wasn’t like I really visited Ireland. Then, even if I am not a real drinker, I’d like to visit a pub or two in Dublin as I am rather partial to Guinness. Not to mention seeing the countryside and the small towns as small towns anywhere have always intrigued me. While on the islands, I’d also like to see a good part of Scotland and the moors as Emily Brontë's Heathcliff, Diana Gabaldon, Loch Ness, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Tana French, and the like have been poking me for a long time. I have seen enough about Continental Europe and some parts of the Middle East, so I am not curious about those places. But I’d hop to Ireland and Scotland willingly...if I could. |
| Prompt: What does independence mean to you? ------ The meaning of independence depends on the angle you are looking at it as it may mean a variety of things. Personally, it points to the fact of living one’s life without being helped or influenced by others, but isn’t this something too tough? We are all influenced first by our families and backgrounds, then by society, religion, and our degree or width of education, and still by politics and the media. Talking for myself, I was even influenced by my children! Then, take old age. How much can senior citizens be independent with their ailing bodies and minds and not many ways to pay for help? Independence also means the ability of a nation or state to exercise self-government, usually over a certain territory. This, too, may be tough to do as we live on this small planet which seems too big to us with its many nations and their ways of being. If we are going to get along with everybody in our wide, wide world, some of our self-government may need a few sacrifices, and this is talking about the richest, safest, and most independent countries. Consider the smaller or third-world countries. Since they depend on others to survive, no matter how much they govern themselves, can we consider them truly independent, especially when the big guys fight and want them to take sides? According to statistics, “Two events are said to be independent if one event's occurrence does not influence the probability that the other event will or will not occur.” Whether one can make heads and tails out of this statement or not, the study of Statistics divides people into cells and their probabilities, and lo and behold, statistics are not usually 100% correct. Thus, I have to say there is no such thing as total independence, but we can all attain a quantity or a quality of independence, be it as a person or as a nation. |
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. It was a sad song I didn't actually know, so it was interesting to me. 
