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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: Much ado is made about stretching the brain and reading and writing outside our comfort zone. Do you think this is helpful? How much fun is it for you to read and write outside your usual genres or your comfort zone? --- Anything I did that I enjoyed the most in my life I did outside my comfort zone. I can swear to that. I can’t say that the same goes 100% for my reading and writing, especially reading even though I read just about everything. For example, I never liked the dry and cut police-procedural type of novels, but because I kept hearing about Tana French so much, I gave her a try. Now, I am reading everything she has written, as I pointed out in another entry, and enjoying myself immensely. What I usually like to read is what they put in the literary genre as booksellers and book-sites online do, stuff that makes me think goes deep into the character without skimping on the plot and other elements, in a simple yet almost poetic prose. Sure enough, such books are heavy in length and not many readers have that kind of patience, but this is just fine with me. In fact, in Amazon and other book reviewing sites, many readers comment "boooring!" or some such thing to the type of books I end up loving. Still, when it comes to writing, I like to try everything. Just the trying part is fun and who knows I might learn something from that. This is because by experimenting with different styles, I might also improve my craft. With poetry, one learns to put huge meanings into a tiny amount of words, for example. With non-fiction or just writing prose pieces, I might get good at knitting sentences structurally. With stories, I might come up with stuff loaded with vivid imagery, rich storylines, and stunning characters. (I wish!) So, why not try everything? The same goes for different genres, even the ones I don’t know much about. Although some say, “Write what you know,” there is such a thing called research isn’t there? Even with the most miserable stuff I’ve written, I probably enjoyed the research of it the most. From which angle I look at it, choosing to write outside of my comfort zone if just for the practice is beneficial. After that, I can write whatever comes and hope sometime, somewhere some true magic will happen. |
| Prompt: Write about your first love — be it a person, place, or thing. --- I like the place or thing idea because so many things surfaced from the depths of memory. With people, eh! I can count it on the fingers of one hand, if that! Still, it is difficult to remember that far back, but I think it was the fish pond in the backyard with red-colored fish gliding in the water. The pond was circular and quite deep, maybe at the height of a tall man. I am guessing this was because the fish retreated to the bottom in cold weather. I wasn’t allowed to go near it alone, which possibly suggested to me that there’s danger in love and in all hidden things when they are so deep that you can’t see the bottom. My mother would hold me tight from my waist and let me watch the pond with quite a few fish in it. Maybe her holding me back did it, that resistance of mine, which would surface many years later. Once a cat stealthily neared the pond. It could have been a stray or one of the cats that belonged to my aunt who lived with us, I can’t exactly recall. That cat hooked her front leg and let her claws into the water, almost catching one of the fishes. Someone shooed it away, saving the fish. What one loves can be in danger, too. Another reason to stay away from it, right? Another reason to avoid the hurt. The fish weren’t always so lucky. A while later, when I was a bit older, I saw a cat catch one of those fish. After that, a wire mesh was stretched on the pond. I am not too sure that wire mesh was strong enough to save the fish from the cats. Maybe it was just the adults' wishful thinking and their need to do something about it. |
| Prompt: What was the last book you read? --- The Likeness by Tana French Here’s the review I wrote for it. "The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, Book 2)"  I am on a Tana French kick. This was the fourth book I read written by this Irish writer. It is a murder-mystery, and I neither read nor like anything about murder, but this woman’s handling of her subjects is far beyond what the genre suggests. They are literary to the bone and much longer than the average murder/police procedural type of novels. In fact, some murder/mystery buffs are complaining of the length of her novels. I am in the process of reading another one, now. If Tana French writes it, I’ll read.  |
| Prompt: "Weeds are flowers, too once you get to know them." A. A. Milne What are your thoughts about this? ---- I love this quote because there are so many ways of looking at it. First, some weeds do have flowers. They may be tiny or unnoticeable but they are flowers, nevertheless. Then, some weeds are medicinal to the degree that their value is much more than the fancy-looking flowers. In addition, in the metaphorical sense, the hardships we consider weeds in our lives are there to teach us, to make us become hardened to ills of the world, and to make us become aware of our personal shortcomings. To wrap it up, “a weed is a flower in an undesirable place” is the idea, but a weed can be in an undesirable place through no wish or its own. An example could be a person like me who dislikes politics but is forced into the Congress, kicking and screaming. Just think about that! What we consider weeds, we need to look at from this point of view, too.  |
| Prompt: David Foster Wallace said, "Good fiction’s job is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable" Do you agree and what do you think good fiction’s job is? --- Yes, I agree, but that’s a simplification of what good fiction can do. I believe that a lot more things exist as to what good fiction does. To begin with, good fiction holds a mirror to all there is inside and outside of us. Sometimes that mirror disturbs or comforts or even encourages to take action. Encouraging is more than comforting, isn’t it? For example, a person reading about a story during the French Revolution may look at the injustices in his own country and may begin to speak up. Then sometimes, good fiction advises us not to take action, too, as that action could be deadly, by giving examples of what might happen in this quixotic, paradoxical life of ours. Yet another job of it is teaching us about our world, its history, its geography. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I finished reading a novel, The Weight of Ink, about the Jewish refugees in England who escaped the torture in Iberia. This part of history, even though I was good with history in school, must have escaped me. So I started reading a non-fiction book on the treatment of the Jews in Spain and Portugal during the twelfth to sixteenth centuries, called The Jews of Iberia. That good book of fiction stimulated my curiosity and taught me a thing or two, and I am not even Jewish, although I do believe I might have Jewish ancestors. Good fiction also entertains. I am now reading another book from an author in Amsterdam who has written about his experiences in an old people’s home and he admits to turning those into fiction; in other words, he’s making up most of the stories. From that point of view, he is really entertaining me, which is much more than providing comfort.  Prompt: Is there a difference between your personal memories and your history as others know it, and what intrigues you most about how other people recall the past? --- Surely, there are a lot of differences between the actual events and what I remember about them because, as a human being, I can’t be certain I am 100% objective about everything as all human beings have some degree of emotionality and interpretation. To top it off, we all own imperfect brains that mix everything up such as imagination and reality, the residue of past experienced affecting our way of seeing things, and rejecting or embracing negative stuff, which the behavioral experts tell their subjects to never give oneself a negative command since the brain has the knack of turning “don’t do this!” to “Do this!” As an aside, that may be why smokers and fans of other vices can’t give up by just deciding not to do the deed. I don’t trust other people’s memories, too. For example, my cousin who has a much better memory than me recalls the naughty deeds we did together through rose-colored glasses whereas I either reject recalling those memories or think of them as stuff to be embarrassed about. I can’t believe she even thanked me for filling her childhood with fun.  |
| Prompt: Happy Midsummer's Eve or Midwinter's Eve Summer solstice or winter solstice depending on where you live and how you see the day. Use these words in your entry today: faeries, realm, Lilith, stag, bonfire, marshmallows, and supermarket. ----- “Lilith, what an idiot! She believes she has descended from the realm of faeries,” Connor murmured as he searched into the supermarket bag for marshmallows to put on the grill. “Now, she says she’ll accept me if I install a Stag Fire Pit in my backyard, just because today is the Summer Solstice. Who does she think I am? Am I cutting money?” “You don’t have to do anything,” came Lilith’s voice from behind him. “I took care of it already. Ready for you to jump in.” Connor turned around to glimpse Lilith as she flew away over the treetops. “Look over there!” she pointed to the biggest bonfire Connor had ever witnessed. “Oh, no!” Connor’s house was crackling in flames. |
| Prompt: "Poetry is meant to be heard." Mary Oliver Do you agree with this? ------ I love Mary Oliver. Still, I think poetry has to be felt internally, first. Hearing the sounds does have an effect like music comforting the soul, but to me, it comes second, not first. The sounds of the words and lines depend on an external sense, the hearing, but feeling has to do with the heart and the mind. The way I look at it, meaning tops everything else in any art but especially in poetry, which, as an arranged piece, has many sides to it such as topic, message, rhythm, and word choices. Most newbie poets have the impression that poetry means using a poetic language and techniques to express important thoughts or ideas in a more beautiful, complex, or compressed way than prose, and that its beauty, complexity, and other heightened external qualities make it what it is. I may accept their assessment only from the point of view that the full beauty of a language, any language, can only be released through poetry. It is true that poetry has a lot do with the deft handling of the language, but that may not be enough on its own because language needs the meaning and the feeling of the poet to become poetry. This is why it is very difficult to comment on, let alone review, any poem. We can only do this from our own impressions and understanding of the work. The poet herself or himself might have had a very different take on that very poem. I think, on this topic, I am more inclined to go with Emily Dickinson’s words. “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?” Hence, as far as poets and poetry aficionados go, I say, “To each, his own!” |
| Prompt: "The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention." Alan Watts What is your take on this? ==== From birth on, we construct the ego ourselves as some kind of an identity, but if we are smart enough, we turn it into the dynamic part of our personalities. This is because the ego becomes a mixture of all our suspicions and beliefs about ourselves that may usually stay hidden inside our subconscious but always ready to pop up and create strong emotional reactions. It may show up as being fake and artificial or as a personal strength, depending on how we treat it and look at it. For the same token, the ego is not necessarily negative, although most people think it so. It is, in fact, made up of positive and negative parts, the positive part being self-esteem and the negative arrogance. There is a huge difference between arrogance and self-confidence. I am not sure which part of the ego Alan Watts is talking about here. Possibly, as most people do, he considers the ego as being only the negative part. The ego is not the real self, but the learned/artificial self mostly with the real self attaching itself to it. Who we are is who we are whether we focus our attention on it or not. The negative part of the ego, on the other hand, requires great attention to itself. This is why it is so difficult to figure out if a person is confident of his skills and who he is or else, who he is and what he can do has gone to his head. |
| Prompt: Flash Fiction: Write a short story about a clock. ==== She says she hates my tick-tock. She says if she had her way, she would send me to the dumps as if I am a ticking bomb about to explode. She even asked her best friend to take me off her hands. That fool! Would her life go on and on, if she didn't have a clock? Where would any life be if it had no pulse? Why doesn't she understand I’m her pulse of time, which she is in? Maybe I’ll just do this. I’ll keep ticking faster and faster. This will make her time shortened in this life. Yes, I’ve already started making her clock go very fast. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.... Isn’t revenge sweet! ------- Also, this: "Chiming For Home" |
| Prompt: Give us a taste of summer – either through a recipe, or a memory or story that expresses summer to you. ------ When a Newyorker, “A Taste of Summer” used to mean events at the Central Park. Now that, it has been more than a couple of decades that I’ve become a southerner, “A Taste of Summer” means outdoor grills, dips in the pool, or the ocean, fans and air conditioning. Also, in summer, nutrients in most fresh produce are at their best. Since it is almost always summer where I live, here’s a lunch or dinner recipe for grilling fans. Corn on the Cob and Chicken-Mango Skewers Grill corn cobs that have been brushed with melted butter. Put those on the side to keep them warm until the chicken is done Toss chicken cubes with salt and pepper. Cut mangos in small pieces. (You can substitute avocados for mangos or you can use them both. Just make sure the avocados are not mushy.) Soak a few wooden skewers in water. Then thread chicken and mango on them. Brush with oil or melted butter. Grill them covered, if you have a covered grill, over medium heat or broil them at least three to four inches away from the fire, turning the skewers until the chicken pieces are no longer pink, possibly 10-15 minutes. Serve together with corn-on-the-cob, with lemon and lime wedges, and possibly with a green side salad. |
| Prompt: How would you see the world through rose-colored glasses? --- A song says: “These rose colored glasses That I'm looking through Show only the beauty 'Cause they hide all the truth” Exactly my point. That is why I do not wear them. At least, I try not to, which is kind of difficult because I am an optimist, especially when it comes to people. How would I see the world if I dared wear them? There comes a mouthful. What I see/imagine has to include the entire planet. If we pick on the USA or any one nation, it won’t work. I guess I’d start with no wars, no tariffs, no visas, no misunderstandings. Clean air, clean oceans, and clean land, respect for animals and all life. Respect and understanding among all people. Respect for all theological beliefs. Children and people with disabilities to be given utmost care and compassion. Not doable! I know that is all too much to hope for but you forced those rose-colored glasses on this realist. |
| Prompt: "You can either see yourself as a wave in the ocean or you can see yourself as the ocean." Oprah Winfrey What are your thoughts about this? ----- Oprah insists this is all about how one sees oneself. That is, you either believe you can do nothing and take in on the chin and roll with what is thrown at you or you believe you can change things and fight for things larger than life. I believe Oprah was talking about herself and where life took her and her role in it. She means to say we become what we believe we are; although, from birth on, we are all told what to believe and what not to believe. Thus, we are all brainwashed at one time or another. Yet, those who are crowned as highly successful, like Oprah, realize what it is they are being forced into believing, fight against it, and change such beliefs about themselves. Even if this takes guts to do, it gives them a certain vision to go after their desires, rejecting the limits they are made to stay in and they aspire to do most wonderful things that are unheard of. This is what I think Oprah is saying. My thoughts on the subject, however, differ from hers somewhat. Although I trust the notion that you become what you believe you are, not everyone has the mind and body, let alone guts, to put up such big fights. That Oprah was successful in her quest doesn’t mean that everyone else will. Some people who believed they can do big things have perished on the way. In Greek mythology, a metaphorical example to this is Icarus whose father fashioned waxen wings for him to escape from Minos’s prison. Overcome with the hubris that he could fly, Icarus soared into the sky and flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings and he fell into the sea and drowned. Thus, I think it is good to believe in oneself and work hard toward what one wants, together with the acceptance of the dangers ahead and one’s own limits in overcoming them. . |
| Prompt: She studied her face in the mirror and it shattered in a million fragments. Have fun with however you take this.. ------ She studied her face in the mirror and it shattered in a million fragments. She was startled. How could this happen? And at the worst time, while she was waiting to be served brunch along with her co-workers in Joe’s Café. Someone had to have been clumsy with the glue. She glimpsed her boss Clem, actually second-in-command. He was staring at her with dismay. Oh, oh! Clem's left eye was leaking into his nose, and he wasn’t aware of it. Darn! Due to the rank-rule, she couldn't let him know. For herself though, she had no other option. It was up to her to fix her own face. She managed to rise, picked up her pieces, and went through the corridor into the restroom. Eyeing the mirror over the washstand, she rearranged her face. She worked at it until she got it right. It was wobbly, but maybe, it would last until the end of the meal. Whether it lasted or not shouldn't matter much. She was still considered to be a rookie in putting herself together, but it was hard to tell anyone’s expertise since they hadn’t mastered everything perfectly, especially after the robots had gotten rid of the humankind. |
| Prompt: What are your rules for courteous phone use? -- To begin with, I hate talking on the phone. I’d rather talk to people face to face or communicate via other means. Then, I expect that whoever calls first takes leave first, unless he or she makes me hang up because of empty prattle. This is because talking on the phone is for sending and receiving messages. Not for socializing. Also, if the connection is bad (as is with some cellphone companies) and I tell the other person his/her voice is breaking, I expect a channel change from them or something like, “I’ll send you an email instead, since this connection isn’t working.” Above all, I expect politeness--from myself and others--in addressing, talking, language usage, and whatever else makes us decent human beings.  Prompt: Make a Gratitude List. I don’t know if I can make a list because I am grateful for just about everything, even the things I sometimes complain about. A few decades ago, I used to write down in a notebook everyday, finding at least 10 things in each day to be grateful about. Nowadays, since my time is more limited than even when I used to work, I think of 10 things every night when I go to bed, after my in-bed reading is finished. If there is one specific thing I am really grateful about, after everything that I have and everyone that I love, is the electronic technology and its making so many books available to a whole lot of people. Tied to that is the number of people who are reading and who would possibly not read, had this technology weren’t so easily available. I don’t like it when people badmouth today’s technology. To me, it is manna from Heaven. If I hadn't tasted it, I would never imagine it could ever exist. |
| Prompt: Although envy is one of the deadly sins, do you believe it may somehow hide a redeeming quality inside? ======= I think there are degrees of envy, but no one ever bothered to categorize them. It is true that jealousy and covetousness permeate envy, but there is also that side of it that makes a person think, if so and so is doing something so right, maybe I can do it, too. or that person is so talented; I wish I could do that, too! I think this side of envy may be its redeeming quality. Most envy is secret. Only in that part of it that leads to crime or in the words of the envying person, envy comes out into the open. Positive envy rejoices in human achievement; on the other hand, negative envy is the deadly one, especially the kind that attempts to stop, undo, or mar the achievements of another. |
| Prompt: "Memories are forget-me-nots gathered along life's ways, pressed close to the heart in a perennial bouquet!" Clara Smith Reber Write about your memories that mean the most to you. ----- The first word of this prompt made me remark “Ahha!” because lately I have been driving to James Galway and I had just walked in after listening to him on the flute, playing “Memories” from Cats. Synchronicity, it is, or another forget-me-not in my perennial bouquet. Another forget-me-not is that I am reading Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg. It is fiction telling the truth through the memories of a young girl in Poland, after the fall of communism, during the 1970s and 1980s. As to my memories, at my age, if I tried to write them down, the result might rival Encyclopedia Britannica in bulk. One thing is for sure; I can remember the oldest memories the best, such as the ornamental red fish (might be koi) swimming in the backyard pond and me kneeling down watching them with my mother standing as the lifeguard behind me; then, a stray cat catching a fish with just one swipe of his paw and me crying my eyes out. This was about the same time when that cat had also caught a newly hatched chick with the hen cackling. I bet my bawling was louder than the hen’s cackling. I also recall my first vision of a woman in white, a bride, in one of the houses in the neighborhood where a daytime wedding was held. I thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world and threw a tantrum demanding they get me the same dress. “When you are old enough, you’ll wear one,” I was told. Yet, when my so-called time came, I felt a disdain for any bridal gown, calling them “clown dresses.” See, this is only from my beginnings. You shouldn’t get me started.  |
| Prompt: "Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August." Jennifer Han What are your thoughts about this quote? --- I guess this quote was said by a person who liked summer better than the other seasons. I really don’t know what to think of it. This is because each year is different. What is magical is what happens in any one month or season. I’ve had wonderful things happen to me in the dead of the winter as well as in the middle of the summer. Thus, for me, it is the goods a life brings, not on which month it brings them. Prompt: Is inaction a form of action? What do you think of inaction or rather giving up? Can it sometimes work? Can anyone be blamed for inaction in real life or in history? --- Whether we regret an action we wish we hadn’t done or we regret the inaction when something needed to be done, action and inaction are the two faces of a coin. The ethics of this is questionable for it seems like only a person’s actions should matter for ethical considerations, not the things they didn’t do. If I do something bad, I am to blame, but if I see a thief in the store and fail to stop him, no one blames me, although I would blame myself. Then, there’s that thought that what if I tried to intervene and i the process made things worse? There are incidents in law such as violence to children, however, that puts me on the spot if I fail to report the incident or take some kind of an action. I guess our civilization has begun modifying its principles for the better. Maybe, we’ll become a fully civilized species when we make being a good Samaritan the norm, instead of applauding such actions that are few and far in between. When I was very young and spoke up for others, I was reprimanded for being a wise Alec. What a way to stop children from becoming responsible citizens! From where I stand, I will always applaud positive actions no matter their result. Prompt: Look at your hands. What do they mean to you? What is the meaning or emotion hiding in each line, blemish, wrinkle, scar, or the lack of those things if you have perfect hands? ---- I think hands are so useful and I am very thankful for mine. On the other hand, we are not the only species with hands. Some other primates, like chimpanzees and lemurs, also have hands with fingers. My hands, at this moment are clean because I washed them just a minute ago. In fact, I wash them all the time because I use them all the time. Aside from being clean, my nails and cuticles are trimmed, but my nails are without nail polish, only because I wash them so often. Up to several years ago, I used to use clear polish on them but that became such a hassle since I hated it when the polish began to peel off. I also dislike polish removers. My fingers show my age. They have more wrinkles than my face; moreover, at their joints I have the beginnings of arthritis. At the moment, on the joint just under the nail of the thumb on my right hand, there is a slight cut about 1/10th of an inch long that looks red. For the life of me, I don’t know how I got that. I don’t recall stabbing or nicking myself. Its redness may be because of the blood thinner I’m on since that cut doesn’t hurt at all. The same thumb I burned a few decades ago when I saved the house from burning. For quite some time, its cuticle and nail stayed deformed, but during the last decade or so, it healed on its own. Then, on the top of my left hand, I poured boiling water by mistake. Its whole top skin turned brownish black, but when it healed, my skin recuperated and it was even smoother than my right hand. So now, whenever I pour boiling water from the kettle, I put my left hand behind my back. I guess I can now say I’ve had a few trials by fire. |
| Prompt: Pick a topic to discuss from this day in history on May 25th... or something that has happened in your world on May 25th. https://www.onthisday.com/events/may/2 ========== 1241 1st attack on the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, Germany I picked this one up because, at the moment, I am reading a book, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. It is about an old scholar in an English University who comes across, in an old London house hidden under a secret place under the stairs, a whole lot of letters, papers, and books written between the Rabbis of the 16th and 17th centuries, who escaped the Portuguese Inquisition. This novel goes back and forth between the year 2000 and 1660. I knew the Jewish people were persecuted throughout the history but this looked like one of the earlier ones by about 700 years before World War II. I am not Jewish, by the way, and neither is the main character of the book I am in the process of reading. I cannot believe how cruel man can be toward its own species. All religions were meant to bring order and peace to the humankind, but the way we handle them, using them as weapons against one another, is absolutely disgusting. I think no one ever should look down upon or badmouth any religion. This is the only way we can stop warring for the sake of religion, against any other religion. In this case of the year 1241, the Mongol invasion and the rise of religiosity among the monks and the religious gave way to the rumors that the Jews were the omens bringing on the end of the world. This is what I found on the subject on Wiki. Where this thing happened, a Jewish Ghetto was created later on. Then about a century later, the second attack to the same place occurred. “The first Judenschlacht of 1241 In May 1241, a pogrom, known as the Judenschlacht (from the German; Slaughter of the Jews) took place in Frankfurt, brought on by conflicts over Jewish-Christian marriages and the enforced baptism of children of such marriages. The Erfurt Dominican Friars recorded that a few Christians and 180 Jews died during the pogrom. It also records that 24 Jews avoided death by accepting baptism, while under the protection of the city fathers. During the attacks, the synagogue was plundered and the Torah scrolls were destroyed. All of this occurred despite the fact that the Jews had been protected by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II since 1236, and had a royal appointee running much of the city government.[3] It seems possible that the Judenschlacht was organized rather than spontaneous. One reason presented is that the fighting lasted more than a day. Secondly, a fortified tower where 70 Jews had taken refuge was captured. Finally, a Jewish dirge records that archers attacked a rabbi and his pupils in their school. All three events imply a measure of planning and the presence of soldiers or a strong militia. Exactly who may have been responsible for the Judenschlacht is unclear owing to the scarcity of sources. The theory that it was led by the Dominican Friars, who had a papal order to fight heresy, is questionable. Another theory is that the pogrom was actually an attack against the Staufer royal family, led by Frederick II. Frederick II ordered an investigation into the Judenschlacht that lasted some years. In 1246 Conrad IV, on behalf of his father Frederick II, issued a document pardoning the citizens of Frankfurt. It declared a pardon without payment on damages because the pogrom occurred, "from carelessness rather than deliberation." The general pardon is an example of the weak political power of the Staufer dynasty in Frankfurt.” More detailed information is also here, in: http://www.judengasse.de/ehtml/E010.htm |
| Prompt: Grab a picture or a photograph from anywhere and write about it. Create a story or a poem. Have fun! ------  My Palette I used to loiter gray-faced, bristle brushing mars-black over raw-umber concepts under urban moonbeams, as if tanned driftwood in still life ever so fragile until you caught me your touch far-reaching into my canvas like soft sable now, in bright sunlight, with new promises born my palette boasts a burst of colors cadmium red, alizarin crimson, Winsor lemon, cerulean blue viridian green alla prima Prompt: What is the most important thing you learned from your grandparents? ------ I don’t know much about my paternal grandparents, although I have seen my paternal grandmother, but since she and my mother were conducting a star-wars scenario, her lessons are few and in-between. My maternal grandmother, however, lived with us and her effect on me is greater than that of my mother. So, instead of chewing the fat on those, I’ll just list a few of them.  Don’t sweat anything. This too shall pass. What you can’t handle or is impossible to handle, God will take care of it. Let go, Let God! Loosen up! Why do you overthink everything! Laugh at things you can’t handle. Always look for the happy side of things. Keep a smile on your face. Pick up after yourself. Don’t depend on anyone, but let others do some of the things, too. Just don’t hog all the work. You’ll wear yourself out the way you’re going. Not everything comes out right or the way you wanted it in the beginning. Just don’t give up. But if something gets too complicated, then replace it with something else Do the right thing, always. Trust yourself. Calm down and listen to what your insides tell you. They’ll point to the right thing. We are people. We all have weaknesses. Don’t think you can overcome them all. Just do the best you can. Don’t hurt anyone in any way, unless they keep at pestering you unnecessarily.  Then, here’s one from my grandfather that I never forget. He always took a look at my kiddie work and praised it. This is what he said after I complained that I can’t paint beautiful pictures. Create what feels right to you. Know your own mind.Never mind what other people say. Everyone’s values, approval, and taste are different. What is beautiful for one is faulty or ugly for another. I think this advice can go for all the arts and other things, too. |
| Prompt: What is your favorite thing about social media? --- My favorite thing is that I get news from friends and family since they post in that media. It used to take too much time and effort to stay in touch with everyone. Now I know what my friends are doing even if they live in faraway parts of the world. It used to take so much time, effort, and money to stay in touch with even 1/100th of those people through the phone and snail mail. Not anymore! Social media may have its drawbacks, but for me, its positives make up for that. Second to that, social media is another portal for us for self-expression. Prompt: Einstein said, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” Can you think of a few things about people that show stupidity? What about the universe’s stupidity? --- Oh, sure! To begin with, we are all stupid with something, partly due to our lack of information on that thing. Second, in a foreign environment, we all act like a stupid person, again due to the lack of information, behavioral mistakes, or adaptation. Then, we always underestimate the stupidities and their damage. And, through our stupid behavior, we incur losses to ourselves or to other people. As to the universe, I don’t know enough about it, but what gets me is the destruction clause it has built into its essence. Such as, everything eventually is destroyed or self-destructs. Also, why do we have to eat, hurt, or damage other beings just to stay alive? Chances are my questions, too, point to my very own infinite stupidity. |
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