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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: The meaning of life for some people can be the privilege of existence or to feel one’s worth or to own a dog or a myriad of other things. What is the meaning of life for you or, if you don't want to talk about yourself, someone you know or a character you’ve created? ------- Life has so many meanings, and I don’t think our existence is a divine joke. The meaning of life is the meaning we each give to our lives. That meaning rests on our very own shoulders, and each one of us may have an individual meaning and a shared one with some others. That meaning for me is the joy I get from being alive. It is when I am absorbed in watching, musing, thinking, reading, writing, doing something, or solving a problem or two. It is then that I feel absolutely happy because all I will ever have is whoever I am and whatever I make of myself. Also, this means helping when I can and trying to keep away from hurting others, and not only people, other living beings, too. This means recognizing and respecting others and honoring them for who they are, even if they are very different from me. I think the capacity to care for others is life’s deepest significance and it is what the Higher Being asks of us because while doing that, we elevate ourselves, too, whether we may be aware of it or not. |
| Prompt: Use these words in your entry today: mistletoe, snowman, angel, cactus, demolish and pickles. ------- A Silly Story after a medieval tale Against my angel’s warning, I stopped at an inn on a frigid, cruel, snowy day. I should have known. The inn had the shape of a crypt. “Isn’t the shape of this inn enough to make you scared?” asked my angel, who--unseen by others--always accompanied me. I shrugged. “It is just a shape.” “The snowman outside has cactus for teeth,” whispered my angel while we entered through the front door. “And don’t stand under the mistletoe. Or else!” “Or else what?” “The innkeeper will stuff you into a barrel of pickles.” Was she joking? So I laughed and boasted, “But I can knock down the barrel, raze it to the ground, and demolish the entire inn, as I am not a pickle.” “If you think you’ll be saved by St. Nick, don’t keep your hopes too high. This inn is the only place St. Nick avoids.” Maybe she had a point but what did she think I could do? Surely, I couldn’t dodge the mistletoe. It was everywhere, even hanging from the ceiling, and sure enough, I found myself in a pickle. But then, a sweet voice arose through the nude branches of the bleak trees. “Ho, Ho, Ho!” Me a terrestrial thing, I was ecstatic as you-know-who picked me out of the barrel. “Honestly,” I said to my angel, “If I know that the one named Nicholas will rescue me, I’ll jump into any pickle barrel, again.” “So cocky! But you win!” said, my angel. Who says angels know everything! ------------------- Well, this is how I demolish medieval tales such as this one: After an old legend of two Spanish boys traveling home from a boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the evil innkeeper, killed the boys and put them in a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, and found the boys in the barrel and miraculously bought them back to life! |
| Prompt: "Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide."~ Ben Okri "Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible".~ Carol Moseley Braun Discuss these quotes in your entry today ----------- Magic is art when it has nothing to hide. This is when it becomes the hope to urge us to make the world a better place. We all carry this hoping element inside ourselves ever since birth, especially when it isn't drained out of us. Being able to hope is a very strong power because hopes can turn to dreams and when we can, when our senses grow sharper and our abilities and capabilities are honed to a certain precision, then we can change what needs to be changed, create what needs to be created, and fix what needs to be fixed. As there are many kinds of magic, what is most magical is the internal connectedness of life that we sometimes experience with people, beautiful sunsets, the ocean, the beach, a work of art, a kind word, a story or poem that speaks to us, feeling the hidden presences of the divine and those we love. In that sense, we are all magicians, wizards, and adventurers with passion, purpose, and miracles in our hearts. If this isn’t magic, as art challenging what seems impossible, I don’t know what else to call it. |
| Prompt: "Do or Do Not, There is no try." Yoda-Star Wars Write your views on this. ---- Of course, and I love Yoda; although, if you judge the do’s by their outcomes, all my do’s translate to try’s. Joking aside, hesitation is not a good thing. I don’t hesitate, something in my favor. Doing one’s best without hesitating is the only sane way, which this doesn’t mean one should jump into doing something without judgment either. After weighing the facts, hesitation is unnecessary.  Prompt: What things are you sensitive about? ---- • When people are hurt, sick, upset, or in dire straits and I can’t do anything about it. • When someone wrongly accuses someone else and there isn’t much I can do about it. • When people or groups create anarchy when there isn’t enough reason for it. • When my goodwill or good thoughts are taken as their opposites. • I worry that I’ll get sick and be a burden to others even if they are professionals like nurses and caretakers. |
| Prompt “Execution is something, but timing is everything.” Todd Stocker What does “timing” mean to you? What happens when your timing is off? ========== Timing may refer to many things that have to do with time or more like the time we spent on anything or if we did something on time, earlier, or later. Timing in music and standup comedy refers to the use of tempo, rhythm, and pauses, in other words, synchronization. The process of measuring the time for anything is also named timing, even someone’s memory’s performances are measured in RAM timings. If you are an investor, your market timing will mean predicting future market movements. In the mechanical world timing of the various parts of a machine is important for the machine to work properly. When timing refers to our ability to do something at exactly the right time and the right way, I would have to say for myself, for my life events, my timing was sometimes on and sometimes off. Well, mostly off because of when I was born. As to the timing of my birth, I would have loved to be born much later just to see where the electronic age will take us. Although being inept and terribly undertaught in all the electronics areas, I am intrigued and in awe with computing and programming. All the new findings cannot come fast enough for me because I am curious,    even if I can’t understand a thing because my timing to be born was off. |
| Prompt: “For the twenty million Americans who are hungry tonight, for the homeless freezing tonight, literature is as useless as a knowledge of astronomy” Andre Dubus, Broken Vessels: Essays What do you think? Is literature as useless as Andre Dubus says? ----- This is Andre Dubus the father, not Andre Dubus III the son, and I can understand the author’s pain, but I don’t agree with his conclusion. My point of view is, yes, our basic needs have to be met for us to live, at least, like well-cared pets or animals. Yet, I believe there is more to a human being. Literature and, in fact, all arts reflect the culture they are created in. Especially in our day, literature expands our worldview and offers an appreciation for other cultures and beliefs. In this way and with getting deeper into the human psyche, literature shows us human nature and conditions that affect all people. Through literature, we learn to handle our and other people’s imperfections better and build better critical thinking and writing skills. Literature can also signal and warn societies of the future. The imagined technologies in some of H.G. Wells’ stories have come true, haven’t they! Then, who can forget the new modernism movement after the nineteen twenties and thirties when objects, not people, became important with writers? The poetry took objects as its main course and replaced people with them. The objects poets and writers gave importance to were domestic or man-made and they were mostly associated with everyday life. After all, their solidity and preciousness were something to be admired and their vulnerability to breakage encouraged some serious literary creations. As the result, objects and not people became the most important thing. I am sure this idea of people not being so important influenced societies and the general thinking, and eventually, it led to people being herded in large groups into camps, gas chambers, armies, or other unlivable conditions. As to Andre Dubus, the father, he spent all his life in a wheelchair, which made him a pessimist. The thing with pessimism is that what a pessimist says sounds as if it is reality and everything else is frivolous. This can make the people take a pessimist’s words as the gospel truth. Also, Broken Vessels is a deeply religious book, which this quote is from. The book has a sense of spiritual righteousness which adds to its power of conviction as well as being not too specific because the author doesn't seek the material world, but the abstract regions of his own heart. |
| Prompt: Creation Saturday, let your inspiration sweep you away, have fun free writing. ----- NaNo Mourning (You did say, have fun!) just why didn’t I write it in Nano a fantasy novel or so roses, rainbows, unicorns I almost forget to breathe while I sigh for an imaginary coterie stone centaurs in shadows in the lamplit façade of a castle, or an ephemeral event with a touch of history and cognac I may offer to a king with a wolfish smile and if I could, I would cross out every word in my present text and replace it at random with my wayward fancy’s lies and flaunt it in social media such as a kid falling from the sky holding a medical encyclopedia or a fiery dragon that flies, carrying a frilly princess on its back resurrected willy-nilly from my replaced faith in the literary I almost forget to breathe roses, rainbows, unicorns a fantasy novel or so just why didn’t I write it in NaNo? |
| Prompt: Write a story or poem using this quote from Dylan as inspiration. Have fun! “The crisp path through the field in this December snow, in the deep dark, where we trod the buried grass like ghosts on dry toast.” ― Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning: Stories Where I Live (a persiflage to Dylan Thomas) No “crisp paths” here or December freeze, but the grass is mostly green if not torched by the sun, and our “ghosts on dry toasts” come out at night as moles, raccoons, and wailing birds. No snow to bury anything but life to do us in, while we, through our palm-sheltered days, totter about and stumble over our dark knots whining, rasping, wheezing, toward the predictable end where the world never was. |
| Prompt: What Christmas commercials have touched your heart this year? --------------- I really don’t watch TV much, and I don’t pay attention to commercials anymore. So, I can't really answer this question fairly, but I can write what I know about how commercials are made for Christmas or for any other thing. Years ago, an ad-scriptwriter who used to work for an advertisement company told me that the commercials that work the best are the ones that tell a story. So, before anyone tries to put something on the market, they write a story first. In fact, they write several stories, and then, they choose the best story for their project. Then they all have what they call a “swipe file” in which they accumulate just about anything, all ads, letters, brochures, postcards, flyers, etc. This is to get ideas and inspiration. The media they’ll advertise it has to be decided upon first. Then, there’s a meeting of manager, assistant manager, marketers, scriptwriters, and artists, photographers, cameramen, etc. For whoever is writing the script, the most important thing is the first sentence, which has to grab the attention. In other words, the hook has to be in the first sentence or the first visual. Usually, everyone works together on the script and the filming. In the end, the manager has to approve the script and the video or whatever media is used. Only after that, the commercial goes to the marketer and is aired. This is what little I know about making a commercial. |
| Prompt: My Grown Up Christmas List By Kelly Clarkson What was on your Christmas List as a child? What is on your Christmas List as an adult? Do you wish you were a child at Christmas or are you happy with being an adult at Christmas? ====== As a child, I wasn’t allowed to make a Christmas list for the simple reason that I was taught that Christmas and all holidays have deeper meanings than desiring material things. If I wanted something at any time, I would ask for it. Then, if my request was doable, the adults would see to it that it was fulfilled. Not that I didn’t get anything on Christmas, other holidays, and my birthday, but whatever was given to me depended on the gift giver’s capability. To this day, I don’t do wish lists about material things. Maybe some books, once in a while, but as an adult, I can buy my own books, anyway. Giving gifts is something else. I always liked giving gifts. I saw this online for Christmas gift suggestions. “To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.” ~ Oren Arnold Then, we can always send good wishes to everyone, especially the wish for world peace. |
| Prompt: What would improve your hometown? Can you convince your town’s officials to make a change that would improve your neighborhood? ----- I think it is somewhat improved as far as the town government goes when compared to about ten-twenty years ago. At that time, we had a woman mayor whose husband had a business that had to do with anything building and fixing. Anytime, the husband needed work, the mayor found or invented something to be fixed, and the husband got the job, even though there were other bidders. Right now, some of those people who worked with her are still working in the town hall, and although the work seems to be okay, I am not comfortable with them. Electing totally new people has its downsides, too, because new people wouldn’t be able to relate to the ins and outs of the work, but I still like the few new people who are in the management positions at this time. As to my neighborhood, I am pretty much satisfied with it. We have a keen and well-working neighborhood watch, and everyone is considerate of everyone else. What is not working as well is the garbage pickup. Not that they don’t pick up anything, but the garbage pickers throw the trash cans all over the place. I wouldn’t mind it if they threw mine on my property, but everyone’s thrash cans end up on the middle of the street. At each pickup day, we keep vigil to pick up the cans and then search for their lids that can be anywhere. Another thing that sometimes doesn’t work is the mail. Normally, we have a wonderful mail-woman, with whom I struck a friendship, but when she goes on a vacation or takes off for a day or two, everyone’s mail service in the neighborhood breaks down. In such a situation, we get the mail at any odd hour of the day and everyone gets everyone else’s mail to boot. Yesterday, I drove three streets down to give someone else’s small package because when I put it in the mailbox for the mailman to retake it to its proper owner, he didn’t. Other than that, things seem to work well enough, at least for the time being. Can I change anything to get things to work better? That is an iffy thing. As to the town’s problems, although they have open sessions and we can complain, not much happens…ever! So, we depend on our voting power. Most of the things they do we are not aware of, anyway. One of the new officials now sends me an email to tell me about town-sponsored events and activities and road repairs, which is much better than nothing. Concerning the mail problems, the post office acted nicely when I complained once, and I eventually received a package that I was missing, but with the amount of mail that changes hands plus the packages of the season, I don’t want to give them more headaches, at this time. As to the garbage pickup, the best thing I can do is to go after our trash cans. Our neighbors complained to the sanitation dept., but not much came out of it since they have hired a private company for the residential trash pickup. |
| Prompt: Seneca said, “A great fortune is a great slavery.” What might such a great fortune be and do you agree with Seneca’s claim? -------- I like Seneca and I agree with him here. On this subject, the first thing that comes to mind is a sudden windfall like winning the lotto. Should that happen, you’d have a responsibility to keep and use that money in the best way possible, which would take a lot of work. Then you have to protect it from thieves and protect yourself even more carefully because of it. Not to mention that your false friends would abound, also. Good luck figuring out who are your real friends! Yet, it is not only the riches and money. A friend of mine always wanted a big house; now that she has a huge one, she is much more miserable than when she used to live in a three-room apartment because the house needs a lot of money, and since she has been living in it for over ten years, repairs and upkeep are a problem. It also uses too much electricity, water, etc and she needs to make a lot more money just to keep it up. Then, she is so tired of cleaning it all the time because she wants to save money for the other things the house needs. In short, her big house has become a dictator and she its slave. Anything you think is a great fortune--even arts, reading, writing, a good garden, etc.—needs constant caring. If the caring you give to it is heartfelt and easy on you, then there is no problem, but if you are forcing yourself and feeling disadvantaged in other areas because of it, then you are being a slave to that good thing or what you consider is your good fortune. |
| "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree" Let's talk about gift giving. What was the first gift you received from your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend for Christmas? What did you give them? If you don't celebrate Christmas discuss the first gift you received or gave. Was the gift practical or whimsical? ================ Who doesn’t like giving and receiving gifts! I love giving gifts and receiving them, too, but gifts that are most important to me are not the ones given to me because of a celebration, be it Christmas, an Anniversary or my birthday. I really appreciate gifts that surprise me for no reason at all and when given on a regular day. The best gifts I received were a poem, a kiss, a handshake with a token that congratulated something I once did, and most recently, a year’s WdC premium membership. This is because, material or otherwise, I love gifts that are given to encourage me or just because the other person liked something about me. Am I self-centered or what!  I do give gifts on Christmas, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations etc. Still when it comes to receiving them, I appreciate all gifts, but I like surprises much better. |
| Prompt: Who is a person you met this year that surprised or delighted you and why? ----- Do I have a story for this prompt or what! My husband and I met somebody, a young man, in the Starbucks inside the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, in Stuart, FL. He was sitting at a small table and typing on a small laptop as if there was no tomorrow. He had a few books piled haphazardly at a side at the laptop. We took the other table next to his. Then, I stood up to get us some coffee. Just at that time, his elbow knocked down one of the books at my feet. I picked it up and handed it to him, and I saw that he was writing something that looked like a story. I said something like, “That looks like a story,” and we began talking. I learned that at the end of the week, as a new recruit, he was being deployed to Afghanistan, and he wanted to finish the story he was writing. He couldn’t write at home because family and friends who heard him leaving were either calling or stopping by. "Thanks to Mother," he said. Of course, I told him about writing.com, but he was a member in another writing site and he thought he might not be able to handle two sites at the same time even if he’d found the time overseas. Anyway, I came back with three cups and a piece of cake. The third cup and the cake were for him. Two things with this encounter: 1. I hate to say, “Thank you for your service,” but I admire people who are so willing to serve us all with their sacrifices. 2. Even in his rush with everything, this young man wanted to write his story. What can be more amazing than that? |
Prompt: "You have delighted us long enough." Mrs. Bennet said this to her daughter Mary after she sang off key while playing the piano in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. When have you been delighted by people long enough? ----- Mrs. Bennett’s left-handed compliments always put a smile on my face. Now I have to think of the long-enoughs in my life. Here it goes, although this may not be all. 1. People who keep telling me of their troubles, not different ones but the same trouble, and asking for advice when I’ve already told them umpteen times whether I had any advice or not. “If I were you I would do this,” is an advice, and so is “I don’t know about this and I don’t know what to say.” Needless to say, I have been delighted enough with giving the same advice for the same problem to the same people. 2. There exist a few kinds of music or movies or TV shows I don’t care about. When people (my husband, mostly) ask me to listen to or watch it with them, they have delighted me enough with the request of my cooperation involving their viewing/listening preferences. 3. Books in a series where each book is NOT a complete story. I just finished reading a book called Coma Girl. The whole thing is one book and is given as a serial…in six parts! Except when you get the first book, you don’t know it and you think it is a complete book what you are giving time and energy for. The first part was free and I didn’t know it was a serial, and since the first part I liked a lot, I bought the second and third parts for $2.99 each, and still didn’t know how far it would go. Then Amazon offered a three-month Prime Reading for $.99, so I read the last three by borrowing them. I hate it when people do that. Imagine that a novella is about 200 Amazon pages. Each book in the series was 90 pages, which could be read in less than a half-hour. You know what happens to this writer as long as I am alive? Although I really enjoyed the book, her style of writing, and the characters, I’ll never start reading another book by her. I probably would have bought her books if they were sold in one volume and was priced $16.99 I have been delighted enough with her ways of pushing her books. 4. People who ask me why I keep writing if my writing isn’t making any money. First, I write because I love doing it. Then, my writing isn’t making any money because I don’t like going through the publishing process as I am not a vendor. I do not even attempt it even with those friends in WdC who have publishing companies. The reason is, I already went through it once on the academic level and had my fill. Moreover, I am not going to spend my last days on earth, knowingly doing what irks me. |
| Prompt: Write a blog entry that starts and ends with the words "The rain wasn't all bad" ---- The rain wasn’t all bad, today. Its drizzle made me recall things I didn’t let myself think about, like the time we got soaking wet and clung to one another or the time, after you left, I went out walking in the rain, so I could blend my tears into raindrops and hide from people, so the noise of the drops could drown my sobs, and I thought Thank God for the falling rain. What if it flew upwards instead of down! Yes, Thank God for it. Since it wrapped itself around a crumbling heart, the rain wasn’t all bad. |
| Prompt: The Elephant In The Room. What was your elephant in the room and how did you resolve it? ----------- I have an elephant in the room, right now. It is called NaNo or November jitters. Yet one more year, I am thinking of how in the world, with all the distractions I get throughout the day, I’ll be able to write 50 K words and finish the d&*! thing. Yet, I’ve done this before and several times over. So I think back and give myself a pat on the back and tell me, “You can do it again!” Okay, so appeased, I’ll go about my day, performing my daily routine and any crazy stuff that springs at me as usual. Still, my mind is going to be on that elephant in the room. “Why are you mumbling to yourself?” my hubby will ask, and I’ll say, “Nothing!” But I’ll know within me that what I called “nothing” is the elephant in the room, which is the novel that will invade my thoughts every single minute. What else can be my elephant in the room? Mediocrity, of course. Now the fear is what if my novel is mediocre or less? “So what?” I say to me. “Just enjoy the ride. This is what it is. Just a ride.” This means I will be ignoring the elephant, and instead, talking about kittens or cockroaches. They all are animals, aren’t they? Unless, I keep tripping over that huge thing in the room… |
| Prompt: The new normal. You have something devastating happen to you and you have to get your life back to normal. Have you ever had a new normal? ------ Yes, since I’ve lived for quite some time, I’ve had quite a few new normals, but the newest normal just happened yesterday, although it doesn’t affect me directly. I went for an eye check-up yesterday and found out from his sister that my eye-doctor had adrenal cancer. He is the doctor we have been seeing for almost three decades, and he is rather young to be so sick. The office is in the process of changing hands, and the new doctor I liked very much, but I so feel sad about what has been happening to this doctor, his family, and the office he has build so ambitiously and so charitably. I recall when he had newly opened the office, on Fridays, he was seeing for free those patients who didn't have any insurance. Later on, he lifted the Friday clause, but I suspect he still did see poor people at a reduced rate or for free. He is a very nice man, and I feel really upset over this, but it is life and things like this happens. We have to go on. |
| Prompt: When you were first beginning writing, who were your literary inspirations? What did you learn from their writing? Are they still as inspiring? ===== In the very beginning when I was far too young, a set of children’s books by Comtesse de Segur were read to me, to teach me how to behave. There were several children in those books, but Sophie was the one I felt a certain kinship to because she always got in trouble although her ways were understandable, at least by me. As soon as I learned to read, The Little Prince was the book to impress me greatly. I am sure it inspired me in some way, but I can’t say which. After I wrote my first poem at eight--- it was about a violet, the wild flower-- other authors and poets began to have an effect on me. Of my middle to high school years, my true inspiration came from Rumi and Dostoevsky, both introduced to me by a lit teacher. Rumi opened my eyes to a feeling, a certain feeling of love for the divine and behavior because of it, something lofty that I hadn’t noticed in religion or in any other superficial spirituality. Since I refrain from talking about belief-related things in this blog, this is as much as I am going to say about Rumi. Coming to Dostoevsky, I adored him, and still do. His work, especially the Idiot, showed me the innocence of a true human being, his ability to forgive, to accept people as they are, and to be as one is. Dostoevsky’s novels point to a world of mystery and wonder. His characters live in a parallel reality with depth of internal dynamics and give-and-take of ideas – not the reality that is around them, although the real world around them exists and they live and survive within it. Then, at the drop of a hat, the author turns, deftly, villains into heroes and vice versa. Even the dialogues in his works have an experimental, introspective quality, with questions and answers reminding one of the Socratic method, and yet, turning the interactions among characters into very lively exchanges. Yes, Dostoevsky and Rumi are still inspirational for me. Prompt: What are your writing goals for this fall? Are you doing NaNoWriMo? Entering contests? Blogging? -------- I am now doing NaNo Prep. I don’t know how it will come out, but I’ll try for NaNo, as I have been doing almost every year. My blogging may suffer a bit, but I’ll try to write in my blog at least once in a while. I don’t know about contests. Sometimes, an idea strikes and I do, but I am not much of a contest person, in general. Usually, I like to write what I want to write in one of my book items on the site. Above all, my favorite type of writing is free-flow in a notebook with a pen, whenever I fine the extra time. |
| Prompt: "Time unfolds beauty, wonder and mystery to reveal the auspicious tapestry of life." What are your thoughts on this? ----- Life weaves its tapestry by interlacing good and bad threads. The good and the bad has to do with our thinking more so than what the events or actions may be in their absolute realities. As such, something good may evolve from something bad, and there’s always the hint of the bad in what we consider to be good. Consequently, it is possible to face our fears without giving in to them, to keep our focus on what we need to be grateful for, and to recognize the ins and outs of life as parts of our experience on earth. Challenges may not be our destination, but they let us gain personality and character, make our living more interesting, and fill our journeys on this planet with insight. |
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