%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   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: Have fun with these words-- assume, disposition, last, bond, minimize, applaud, spirit ------------ To a Food Thief How odd to applaud my disposition, assuming it has changed over time to bond with your distraught spirit down on its luck! I guess I can’t expect you to read me perfectly but do not welcome me to your underworld just because I’ve minimized your insufferable spectacle of predatory brilliance when you pilfered my last éclair.  Prompt: Imagine Spring Fever was a real person. What would he or she look like? What would he or she do to make it a good spring? --------- Spring fever entered the courtyard wearing trousers folded up to her knees. She was barefoot. Raising one leg than the other she splotched in the rain. Then she cocked her head this way and that and crooned at the birds on the branches. The minute she smiled, sunbeams broke through the branches overhead and the buds on the trees began to come alive and open into light green leaflets. People had warned me that she was bipolar, but I didn’t know she could change so quickly from one minute to the next. Still, her beauty was flawless and the more she smiled, the warmer the weather became. She moved forward like a song and touched me and my companion. We both felt her mantras echoing inside us, but as beauty is a liability, we didn’t feel she had a brain. Not a good one anyhow! Yet, in her native superiority, she threw her fiery glance about, together with the thorns that grew on the roses and the thorns inside me, thorns of doubt that what she encouraged us to feel she could not change with her touch and we would be made to remain inside her intense tune. Was I wrong? I would find out, come summer. |
Prompt: "Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it." Emily Dickinson Do you agree? Write anything you want about this. ----- The purpose of life’s spell must be to magnify or add to the positive energy. Yet, who can understand and appreciate it? We are born with blank brains that are filled in with stuff from our environments. Then, according to our circumstances, we curse or applaud life or fate itself. Still, some of us try to decipher that spell and take apart its components. This trying to figure out life can be the very thing that makes it other than what it is, bitter than what it is. If we just accepted life as is, maybe we could just dwell in it without breaking its spell. Anyhow, this is what I think Emily Dickinson might have meant, although no one can really tell what any poet means by any line of his or her words. In addition, I don’t agree with the idea that “everything conspires to break it,” which is a gloomy view of that “everything.” Prompt: Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” What do you think are the pros and cons of trying to get to know someone better of whom we have a negative first impression? --------- People don’t always hit it off right away. In order to create better understanding and appreciate our differences, we need to give another chance to people who rubbed us the wrong way in the beginning. The initial dislike between people can happen anywhere, but it is especially harmful in a workplace. Let’s face it, we have to work together so whatever it is we are working toward—a project, a company, workers unity, a competition, a team, etc.—can be successful. For that, we need to identify the differences, accept, and even use them for the greater purpose. Then, more often than not, first impressions can be at fault. We might have seen in the other person something we don’t like in another, due to his or her simple likeness in an area, say the hairstyle, since the mind has its own way of reading data and converting it to ideas. Even if for this reason only, we must give the other person the benefit of the doubt and try to get to know them much better. After all, what have we got to lose? Prompt: “Gardening, like life, requires courage. We must be brave enough to cut back the old and sit with fewer branches, awaiting new growth. And we must trust that it will come.” From Waking up in Winter by Cheryl Richardson Can you think of any specific areas of living where this cutting back and waiting for new growth idea would apply? Growth and change in life is a natural phenomenon. While we like growing a spirit of freedom, nurturing and exciting friendships, and positive pastimes, when daily demands keep us busy and focused on only certain areas and we think life is satisfying and rewarding, we may not notice the surplus and superfluous aspects of living crowding our attention. When this happens and we notice it, we need to dig up the weeds, prune excesses and unrewarding activities, and not let the choking addictions take over us like the stubborn poison ivy. Should weeds, excesses, or addictions of any kind appear we must be able to get rid of them and wait for the new growth, which will need hard work, patience, and courage. With a determined mindset, this will happen and we must trust the process with patience that it has to happen, as our freedom, internal and external, lies in our brave actions. |
| PROMPT: What's your favorite way of responding to someone who considers their competence to be at least on some level knowledgeable in a category they've visibly proven they're less than capable of living up to? Where's the line when it comes to calling people out on their self-perceived superiority? ==== First, truly knowledgeable people do not act superior to others. When it comes to calling people out on their self-perceived superiority, I myself have to be really knowledgeable in that area, and I would only call anyone out if their self-perceived competence is misleading other people or causing any problems for someone else. Then another scenario could be, provided that I have more knowledge than such a person and if I find such people open to suggestions, I would try to recommend them some reading material or some courses they could attend to. Otherwise, it is not my business to beat up on people who are incompetent and headstrong unless they are hurting someone or something. Acting superior in an area when one is not capable may mean that person has a superiority complex, as that's the exact name Alfred Adler called it. Superiority Complex is a defense mechanism, and it is the result of feeling inadequate. If I suspect that a person's superiority show is the result of such a complex, I might try to ease his burden by showing the truly positive things in his life, but doing more than that still is not my business. That person has to see a therapist. |
| Prompt: Do you ever have days when you know if you say what's really on your mind, you'll scare people away? Here's your opportunity to vent without consequence What's really on your mind? ============ Keeping thoughts to myself doesn’t mean I am keeping them a secret, but there are boundaries where people are concerned and no one should cross them. Aside from those boundaries, I don’t keep secrets about myself because secrets point to fear, and I fear nobody. What I fear, if I fear, is hurting someone else’s self-confidence or belief system. Most people are fiery about their political views and religious beliefs or non-beliefs. Even though it is everyone’s legal right to express them without insulting the other person, some people are so militaristic that another person’s opinion, however politely expressed, they take as an affront. So, I won’t talk about religion or politics, period, but I don’t fear about scaring anyone away. I fear they’ll hurt themselves because they can’t stand someone else’s truth. Then, why should I talk about something that’s on my mind, something that bugs me, especially in a blog where the whole world can have access to? Telling things without wanting to is succumbing to pressure. I don't take pressure well, and I am not afraid of scaring anyone away. Those who have decided to stay away from me are already staying away, I’m sure. In addition, I don’t need to vent about anyone, but if I wanted to vent, I would vent about myself, about things like, why is it that, after I got older, I have less stamina or why am I forgetting stuff more and why am I, once in a while, using the wrong word instead of the intended one? |
| Prompt: Nine random words to be used as a blog entry, poem or story on this ninth day of March. Have fun. equip, rumor, marble, challenge, expansion, food, brave, burial, register ======== Keeping Secrets worries marble like clouds challenging with bravado, in overtures and expansion, spreading rumors of destruction but you are equipped with food for thought similar to prayers, and a brave gatekeeper that you are, after registering the dead, you lower your pains stiff and sharp, into their burial crypts. |
| Prompt: "Saying nothing sometimes says the most." Emily Dickinson Do you agree? == Yes, I agree but only partially. On a personal one-to-one basis, not saying anything or not answering a question that passes the limits of acceptability does say the most. On the other hand, there are situations where you have to say something if you are a self-respecting individual and a good citizen of the world, for example when you see great injustice being done to a great number of people and other beings. Prompt: You see green, blue and red flashing lights in your bathroom at night. What is happening and do you dare enter? == First, I’d be worried that the flashing lights are being caused by my eyesight, specifically the retina separating. I would turn my head in all directions to figure out if the lights are coming from only one direction. If the flashing lights are from every direction, I’d call my ophthalmologist. If only from the bathroom, I’d go open the door carefully, hoping to find a smart Martian in there who could help me with Windows 10 that suddenly goes into sleep mode on its own while I am in the middle of writing something, but no luck there. As an aside, as much as my writing may put the darn system to sleep, Windows 10 is not supposed to do that to me. Fact is, I’d probably see some electrical lights or appliances attached to the wall, like electric toothbrushes, shorting themselves out. Prompt: “It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!” Friedrich Nietzsche Are you always aware of the reasons for your opinions and the way you think? And what do you make of Nietzche’s quote? == No, unless I sit down and really think about every single opinion, I’m not always aware of the reasons for my opinions 100%, as some of our reasoning is based on our upbringing, the way the societies we are in have molded us, our beliefs past and present like the ten commandments, and our personal experiences. If Nietzche has remembered every single reason for every single opinion he held, my hat’s off to him; however, I don’t think such a feat is possible to us people who are in human form. |
| Prompt: Is there any way to spot a liar? Do you have a special trick for it or what makes you suspicious that someone is lying? =================== Most of the prompts I come up with have to do with writing. This one is no exception as it has to do with character actions. Is there any way to spot a liar? Not really, since everyone acts and reacts differently to a stimulus or what they want to get out of a conversation. As for me, no I have no tricks. Something about the person, though, makes me suspicious when that person is lying; however, I can’t put my finger on it, exactly. It is a gut feeling or sixth sense. So, I checked the Emotion Thesaurus for writers. It has no entry for how liars act. An FBI agent, however, has some tricks to get the truth from the person he interrogates, although these are not tricks for spotting a liar for a regular person. https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/an-fbi-agent-s-8-ways-to-spot-a-liar.html Then, I found a page in La Times where it lists “dead giveaways” to spot a liar. “Liars often: 1. Avoid eye contact. 2. Look down when speaking. 3. Angle their body away from the person they're speaking too. 4. Omit critical information. 5. Get fidgety or agitated when pressed for details. 6. Touch their faces, especially their nose. 7. Less apparent to the eye: Their heartbeat skyrockets and their pulse quickens.” My answers to those: 1. Most Middle-Eastern women (sometimes men, too) are brought up not to look directly into someone’s eye or face. 2. Some people are shy or have an inferiority complex which makes them look down. 3. A person may angle his/her body away for many other reasons, a cramp in the leg for example, but I think this is a good sign if you know the person well and he or she suddenly changes his/her posture. 4. Not everyone wants to tell about some things. They may be private things they won’t tell anyone no matter what. Not all evasions have to do with lying. 5. Press me on something private I don’t want to talk about and I’ll get fidgety, too. We all have the right to keep what’s private to ourselves. 6. This may be, but it is still iffy. What if their nose itches? What if they have the mania of putting their hands on their faces? 7. How can one figure this one out if he or she doesn’t have a stethoscope! This pointer may have a use, however, when we writers go into a character’s head and write about the way he feels when he lies. To wrap it up, in real life, there’s no exact way to spot a liar, but the pointers we may use in our stories.  |
| PROMPT: Charles Caleb Colton once said: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." What, in your opinion, makes for a good imitation? ================ Humans learn by the monkey-see-monkey-do method from birth on, but not all imitation is perfect. Looking at it from the aspirant’s angle, imitation can be the first step in learning anything, but it can also stifle creativity and take away from the definition of one’s own product. In fact, most anything imitated is mediocre at best. Yet, it can be flattery to the real thing as only the top products or the envied ones are imitated by the lesser ones. If a person imitates another in whichever thing, it means he or she admires him. This, however, can irritate the copied one. When I was in my teens, my mother’s best friend’s daughter who was about two years younger than me kept imitating me and comparing herself to me all the time. How annoying it was, I cannot even begin to tell. Frankly, I wasn’t flattered at all. Then, what if someone copies a woman’s style of dressing or copies every fashion trend she picks up when the first woman wants to be the only one wearing something distinctive in a gathering? What if someone steals another’s ideas and presents them as his own before the original idea-owner can present it? Isn’t this stealing instead of flattery? What if someone likes your partner enough to snatch her or him away from you, only because he or she admires your taste? Although we can’t have copyrights on partners, most things have to abide by the copyright laws. If imitation was at all sincere and well-meaning and there was something good about it, would we need copyright laws at all? |
| prompt: A strange noise is coming from inside the closet. Should you open and explore? ======== True Story: My son and daughter-in-law gave me one of those helium-filled Happy-Birthday balloons. Since the balloon had a clip at its end, I clipped it at the back of the chair I usually sit in. The balloon was moving as I moved, but I didn’t know that since it was in the back of me. Coco, my kids’ dog, saw it from a distance and thought the balloon was attacking me and she went berserk. As soon as we figured out what bothered Coco, I took the balloon into my closet, feeling like a million bucks because the dog stood up for me. Then, we went our merry way the rest of the day, and I forgot about the balloon. That night, after a while of going to bed, I heard a bizarre noise coming from the closet. That closet is a walk-in closet and it has one door and no windows. “What’s that?” I asked. ”Must be a raccoon outside,” answered my husband. “No, it’s coming from the inside,” I said, “I think it is in the closet.” “Go back to sleep!” said my easy-going hubby in his usual stoical tone. Heck, no! I couldn’t because the noise continued and in the still of the night, its tone became even harsher. Was there an animal in there? A snake? One of those Florida creatures? A ghost? Heaven forbid if it were a few Palmetto Bugs having a party! I could handle a ghost, snake, or any other animal, but if it were Palmetto Bugs, I’d have to call the police, the armed forces, state troopers, and God to rescue… So, armed with the bug spray, I opened the closet door and saw the heart-shaped helium balloon swaying from side to side and kissing my purses that were on the shelf over my shirts. |
| Prompt: Pursue the Horizon has begun again and I'm feeling the need for new poets. Let's discuss your favorite poet and what style the author prefers. ========= I don’t have a favorite poet, and I like each poet for a different reason. What I don’t look upon favorably is when a poet sacrifices meaning for form. This I see a lot here in WdC, although I trust implicitly the good intentions of our members. I’d rather a poet let go of the form rather than the meaning. This is probably why I write very little formal poetry as opposed to free verse. Of the bygone poets, who give precedence to meaning only, I especially like Rumi and Tagore. Since I don’t want to talk about them, I am going to pick a contemporary poet whom I like through my eeny-meeny-miny-mo system, and Billy Collins just won my lottery. As a tiny bio, Billy Collins, born in 1941, was the poet-laureate of USA twice, during 2001-2003. He was asked to write a poem commemorating the first anniversary of 9/11 for the fall of the towers of the World Trade Center. He read it in front of a joint session of the Congress. He taught in NY universities, Columbia, Lehman College, and the City University. He has quite a few books of poetry and he is a much-liked poet. What do I like about his poetry? It sometimes startles me either because the poet showed deeper insight into something no one else did before (that I knew of) or because he dared say something no one else would dare to say. Despite the above World Trade Center poem, he mostly writes about ordinary, insignificant things that most poets do not even notice. He starts with the simplest facts but penetrates so keenly into their depths that his perception awes the reader. I think this may point to an unusual intelligence and sense of humor that an average person or a poet may lack. Then, just when I think he is writing about something light and happy, he twists it into something darker and as the icing on the cake, he adds something funny to it. Here is a Billy Collins Poem. (I suspect he wrote it for his students or maybe not.) Introduction To Poetry ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. |
| Prompt: "The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough." Rabindranath Tagore Write about butterflies and spring. -------------- Who isn’t amazed at the short life of a butterfly, the winged insect that enjoys every moment of its 24 hours? But maybe mother nature is trying to tell us something through its butterflies. Sometimes I try to pinpoint a special moment by photographing it, but I found out that those fleeting moments, though captured in photos, lose from the complete enjoyment and awareness of them. So, I have been keeping my photographing to a minimum because such moments are too precious to be distracted away from them. Along a similar vein, I don’t think this quote refers to the shortness of life, but of making the most of every moment by showing the butterfly as an example. In some cases, however, in an average life, special moments may be few and far in between; yet, it is up to us to make each moment special. This is what some teachings tell us that to take every moment as if it is the last and enjoy it for every moment has its value. Even when scrubbing the tiles or doing the dishes…  Having awareness of the present moment with our five senses, even the sixth one, we can make the most of the mundane activities. In other words, with such an understanding, we can get maximum value from every breath we take.An attitude like that can lead us into a butterfly-moments-every-moment bliss and, as a result, may give us a sense of purpose and an added meaning to our lives to turn any season into spring. |
| Prompt: "A woman can be beautiful as well as intellectual." Audrey Hepburn. Do you agree? Write anything you want about this. ============== Sure! I agree. It is a given. The same goes for a handsome man being an intellectual. It is the use of one’s brain and social and educational skills that makes the person, a person; man or woman, I don’t see the difference in that. Possibly, in Audrey Hepburn’s time and social circles, basically in Hollywood, only a female’s beauty made the sales. In real life, a beautiful woman or a handsome man is good to look at, but for how long can one keep watching the good looks if that beauty has no substance as a person? After all, we are people and we like to communicate with each other in a meaningful way. Prompt: Anatole France said, “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” What do you take from this quote and what do you think of people who don’t like animals? ================ Some people think having animals around helps the children to develop a healthier social life, but is that all? I think animals help our existence no matter what age we are. On the physical side, animals can reduce our cardiac reactivity to stress and they help us recover from illnesses more quickly. Some psychologists claim having a healthy relationship with an animal companion raises the oxytocin (the feel-happy hormone) levels in the brain. Animals are really sincere in their feelings and in their show of love to people they connect with. Animals try to communicate with us although we are too thickheaded to understand them sometimes. Look at an animal’s eyes and see the emotion and the innocence in them. Most of them value their independence and they don’t whine about someone ignoring them. When their basic needs are met, they live in greater contentment that we ever can. They do not philosophize and sermonize in a condescending manner; they do not look down on us for our beliefs; they do not try to inject us with their religious or political views. They do not criticize, pass judgment, or ask too many questions. Above all, they are loyal to the bone and make great friends for they accept us as we are. It hurts me greatly to see animals abandoned, put down, abused and lonely. I don’t like people declawing their cats, either. It also hurts me when an animal I love dies. When I was thirteen, my tabby cat passed away. I was so stricken that I got sick for three days and couldn’t go to school, and I was a nerd. I loved school. Those three days were possibly the only absences during my jr. high years. In my life, all through my childhood and teens, I had cats. My cats were free to roam around in the yard or in the neighbors’ yards. This was because the three streets of residences formed a triangle in the back, making our backyards safe for everyone’s cats. As much as I like animals, I don’t like to see them restrained too much. I think it is because of the leash laws that dogs I see in my neighborhood sometimes act nervous, aggressive, or unhappy. Still, I approve of the leash laws in neighborhoods where houses are too close together and the animals present a danger to people or to themselves because of the traffic. When I had my Newfoundland, similar to the place I grew up in, every neighbor had a dog and a large yard, and we had an understanding among us that we let our dogs roam on their own. My dog sometimes accepted visitors and went to visit his friends, although he knew to stick around in our property most of the time. I love not only the domesticated animals but also the wild animals; although I would respect them and not bother them in their natural habitats. That’s where they belong and we shouldn’t trespass. It annoys me, in the state that I live in, instead of selling and using the existing residences and now emptied shopping centers, builders are taking over preserves and woods. Almost every year or so, we get a wild animal infestation just because somebody razed down the trees and stole the habitats from animals. Someday, the human race will be very sorry when our planet will be barren, dull, and without its animals, due to our greed. |
| Prompt: How do you suppose misogyny did and does originate? ----- I think misogyny originated, a long time ago, from the false conceptions about women but not from a specific kind of hatred toward all the women who existed or are in existence, as some people believe. The pure hatred, itself, seems to be overly simplistic. If some hatred exists, it is the result of learned behavior. If pure hatred of women really existed, the misogynists would hate their mothers, Mother Mary, Mother Theresa, or Madame Curie, too. Thus, the false perception or believing in the fairytale of women being subordinate or inferior seems to be the underlying cause. In the old times, since women had the child-bearer-nurturer job in society, they became the property of home alone, and in time, they ended up giving in to the coercive regulations of society, which in the long run, accepted all kinds of attacks, even physical ones like rape or beating of women, as suitable or tolerable. Unfortunately, women themselves have bought into and intensified this fallacy of patriarchal superiority. Only, some of us old-timers may remember our young years when some of the old-timer ladies of the day told us to behave like a woman and please and serve the man who is the big shot and the provider. I recall such remarks had angered me much more when the misogyny was promoted and accelerated by other older women who should know better. Although not all of the women in the olden times were misogynists. In fact, I know my mother-in-law was quite furious with the idea of the superiority of men. In our time, one would think misogyny would be erased totally, but this is not so. Some of the old beliefs still give offshoots from their roots in cahoots with tomcatting and macho rubbish. Then, there are the personal-vendetta misogynists who have been wronged-or thought they were wronged-by one woman who project their anger on all women. Yet, what I think is not enough. To figure out all the root causes, actions, and feelings resulting in misogyny would take a serious investigation by the psychologists and social scientists. The bottom line is, women are human beings, and misogyny dehumanizes not only the women but those who practice it. PROMPT: Live television, on-demand viewing, or do you just not care? -- I am not a big TV watcher. In fact, although the TV is on non-stop, due to my husband’s dependence on it, I only watch from the sidelines while either doing some chore or when I can’t read or listen to a book. In my entire lifetime, I have enjoyed very few TV shows. READING I need to note this here for my own self in case I might need to refer to it later. I read more than I do anything else. Now that I am retired, more or less, I have more time to read. When Goodreads began bugging me to pledge a number of books to read in a year, I first ignored them; then, this year I gave in. I gave a number off the top of my head for 2018, which was way too low. Then I raised it to 75. Yet, only in January, I read 18 books. At the end of January, I discovered "CLOSED!The Monthly Reading Challenge"  for making monthly pledges. Few days past the middle of February, my pledge was fulfilled, and I am still continuing on with reading. Thinking further on the subject, I realized I picked up my reading material on the impulse of the moment. True, my reading is still quite eclectic, with poetry books, novels, and non-fiction, but I realized I could widen my vistas by adding choices other than what is in my immediate reach. Thus, I am looking into much older writing like that of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially to the works of good writers who never reached a lot of fame and the works of little-known writers from other nations. This idea made me get more excited about reading. Thus, while doing a Gutenberg search I came across Émile Verhaeren a Belgian Poet I hadn’t heard of at all. Google has his poetry. I also found it in the Internet Archives. So, it is on my to-read list now. Another thing, with the yearly pledge thing Goodreads runs, wouldn’t it be better if they kept the record of how many books we read as well as the pledges or maybe instead of the pledges? |
| Prompt: Mark Twain said, "To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence." Do you agree or disagree? What do you think is the key to success? ---------------------- If I could change the words “to succeed in life” to “to succeed in our faulty world,” the saying could have some merit. One may take up a challenge or a hobby not knowing what it entails. If the encounter with the subject is something he enjoys and finds out he wants to work with it, he may continue on with that journey, and to continue, his confidence may help him along the way. Anyone who takes up serious photography discovers that it is a difficult prospect and a costly one, for example. Otherwise, this is another glib saying, since “life” has a larger meaning and people relate to the word in a different and personal way. The same goes for success and the degree of it. If the saying means literally “to succeed in life,” I don’t agree with it for I was never a fan of the ignorance-is-bliss idea. The only positive side of ignorance is its disregarding of the inward doubts a person may cultivate within himself. As inward doubts hold most people hostage and prolong or hinder their success, I guess some ignorance may help. I, however, like to go into something knowing what I am getting into. The key to success, for me, is neither ignorance nor confidence; I favor perseverance. If you keep at something and learn from your mistakes along the way without giving credence to self-defeating doubts, you’re bound to gather some degree of success. |
| Prompt: Please use these words in your blog entry--- ankh paralyzed, blackout, buzz, messenger, bark. Have fun. ============= the temple has a wide entrance where the goddess holds the ankh in her hand casting magic with her cyclopean eye who knows what relief her messenger will bring when words are broken open tongue paralyzed and this imperfect buzz then a sardonic bark so much debris in living blackout with pizzazz? who crossed the circle rather who circled the cross? |
| Prompt: "There is one difference between a long life and a great dinner, in the dinner, the sweet things come last." Audrey Hepburn Do you agree with this? ========= Do I agree with the quote? Not really. Whether the sweet part comes first or last depends on the life and the person. Some people have rotten beginnings and very successful and happy adulthoods. That is why generalizations are usually iffy. Also, after a great dinner, I usually have no space in my stomach for anything else, sweet or sour. Plus, great dinners have more to do with the company than the food. I think whether the beginning of life is sweet or not, we can try to put some sweetness in the rest of the way, so there is still something sweet left for the end. When it comes to the food, I like a small sweet bit of something as treat on its own like a pick-me-up after being overworked. Then, it is possible that I don’t have a very powerful sweet tooth.  Prompt: Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring? Write anything you want about this. ======= a breath of spring and…achoo! fancy colors and scents still a mourning as counterpoint this, my nose detects and rejects like an activist with insight -stronger than sight- warning what is so pretty is also deadly |
| Prompt: What are the qualities that make a president or any leader great? =========== Some leaders and presidents are known for their greatness; others not so much. I think character is important, the right character. But what is the right character? The right character is what can answer the requirements of the circumstances of that leader’s time and the kind of people that leader is asked to lead. This brings to mind the feisty President Truman. He wasn’t much loved in his time. He had a few deficiencies, and the Americans and the news media made fun of him to no limit. A favorite widespread and not-too-terrible saying of the time is, “I’m mild about Harry!” Yet, Truman rose to the demands of the day and made great contributions to the nation. His entire life, especially what he did during wartime, makes good reading, btw. Yet, as people we want our presidents and leaders to be flawless, but there is no flawless person, and most of the time our flaws make us who we are. The way I see it, conscientiousness is a good trait, but a good sense of selectivity about things a leader is conscientious about is more important than blind conscientiousness. For example, fighting for animal welfare is a good stance, but if pythons in an area are reproducing at a rapid pace and are seriously threatening the citizens’ lives, then transplanting or destroying those animals must take precedence. A leader also should be open to change but in a conservative way. By the conservative way, I mean without messing up more what is in function even if it isn’t perfect. If the change one brings upsets something that is working, be it to a degree, that change is useless. A president or a leader should know how to be agreeable without being meek and he should also be daring enough to take action when action is needed. A good balance among strict guidance, tenderness, and decisiveness does help, too. As to openness and secretiveness, another good balance is needed. Plus, I have to say, I always worry about people who act impulsively, all the time. Then, instead of praising religion-based morality in its strictest sense, although I appreciate good morals in anyone, I am going to favor good psychological adjustment that gives people high self-esteem but without becoming braggarts. Those who are not in good terms with themselves rarely, if ever, make good leaders. Subjective well-being is just as important as social and political effectiveness. To wrap it up, I believe a person who is comfortable in his own skin, can adapt to change in a socially acceptable way, can bring about change without hurt, and is considerate of the welfare of all people has the makings of a good leader. |
| Prompt: What do you think objectivity is, and as humans, can we really experience anything objectively? --------------------------- I don’t think absolute objectivity can exist. We can only be relatively objective. The simplest reason is we can only know and experience what our conditions let us know and experience. Speculating further on the subject, objectivity, in its loosest form, means making decisions based on the facts rather than personal feelings or beliefs. Yet, can we really be objective when what is given to us to experience the world with is a brain and five senses, all different from the other species on this planet? In other words, no completely objective structure exists, and I suspect not only differences among the species but even the human beings must be in place. For example, something that tastes too sweet for me is usually not sweet enough for my husband. Still, when we are able to have some choice in how we act and we are free to choose our behavior, we can do so. Still, our actions and choices depend on our background and how it has affected us. This means we can be objective, but only partially so. What holds us back from being totally objective is our brain, our physical and mental makeup, our background, and our education. Thus, what purports to be a fact is not an absolute fact but what is perceived by the perceiver as to be true to his understanding. Using the same measure, we can apply this idea to groups. Group A constantly spies on Group B and Group B does the same thing to Group A. When one of the groups catches the other’s spies, its adherents are outraged even though their group has been doing the same thing to the other group. Isn’t this reaction the result of the background and upbringing of that outraged group? Is that group's indignation reasonable and objective? With all this chewing the fat, I still believe we can still try to be objective, unbiased, just, and not much influenced by our emotions and personal or group prejudices. At least, within our given capabilities. |
| PROMPT: How do you know when you've met your match? =============== Honestly speaking, you don’t. Only time does tell. To begin with, at least some of the time, people change or grow in different directions as they mature. That alone erases or alters the word match. Speaking from my mind’s BS, meeting one’s match--as an idiom--has several connotations. It may mean the other person is just as strong and capable as you if you are fighting him/her in a rink or in business or in life in general. It may also mean someone who is like you and you can work well with. Mostly the word match brings the idea of a couple’s relationships. I can say—somewhat with hesitation as people are different—that there possibly are a few things that should line up for a match to be made. As to couples’ relationships, what comes to mind are: • You feel at ease, happy, and alive when this person is near you. • The other person feels just right, intuitively. • Your sense of right and wrong or, in a nutshell, what you consider morality is similar or the same. • Your enjoyment of life and having a good time means the same or similar thing to each of you. • Your backgrounds, families, country, language etc. are somewhat compatible. |
| Prompt: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. - Old Saying. Write a story or poem about something you think is beautiful but no one else agrees with you. Write and have fun. =========== The Leaf that Withered on the Tree the mystery is in its impossible ruin but picked for a lesser life the leaf that withered on the branch with emaciated cells and dark rusty color fated to kiss the ground yet, it is less a leaf but more of the sun like a prayer remaining crisp on a candle’s flame rising to look down to give solace with a kiss to the insignificant |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
Thanks. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all the lovely and talented WdC friends like you. 
