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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: "To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness." Mary Stuart, Queen Of Scots What are your views about this? ------ This is all nice and very good, but how much does it have to do with true happiness, rather happiness with meaning? Granted, an above-described individual has lasting, positive interactions and his or her need to belong is satisfied. This is all good and possibly a step toward happiness. In my case, however, I am the happiest when I am doing something I like, whatever that may be at any given moment. I am also at my happiest during the times of solitude when I can get in touch with myself. Still, would I want solitude all the time? Definitely no. And in the same vein, would I want to be around people, even the people I love, all the time? Again, no. Thus, a good proportion is what is needed to feel happy, most of the time. Even so, happiness being the goal of life seems lacking to me. There is something there that doesn’t correspond with the needs of human nature. This reminds me of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, in which the hero escaped from paradise to live in a risky world where he had a choice of effort to make a difference. More meaning exists in a world of suffering, suspense, and humanness. Thus, I think a meaningful life, rather than an always happy one, should be the ultimate goal for mankind. Striving toward something, working against injustice, and bettering oneself and the lives of others make people who they are. After all, one can be stupid, ignorant, lazy, and happy.  Prompt: As you go through your day, how much do you think of the existence of the sun? Do you love it or do you hate it? Do you think at one time or another it can be a threat to earth’s existence? And what about the time when humans worshipped it? --- I have never really given a thought to the existence of the sun. It just is. It is there. Still, I have to love the sun or at least, like it. Without it, none of us would be alive. I don’t much care for its hot, scorching effect during its hottest time in summer when its rays hit directly on us with more force than it does during the winter months. Sun as a symbol means warmth, joy, ease, color, and fullness. It can also symbolize intellect, understanding, glory, and fame. A ray of sunshine, for example, may mean a sudden grasp of a situation or a piece of happy news. Sun is the star of hot plasma which aids life and it is our ultimate source of energy for life. The effects of the sun on our being has been recognized since prehistoric times, even to the degree of it being worshipped as a deity. Yet, it is not a deity but just a star with electromagnetic properties, providing a weak tidal effect on the planets around it as it is the largest object around us. It is estimated that it has had the power to stay active for about five billion years with five billion more years of possible life. That’s good to know! But if it expands or dies down, I’m sure it will be a threat to the earth’s and other planets’ existence. |
| Prompt: What does the phrase “Closed Door” mean to you? If there is such a situation, what’s behind the door? Why is it closed? --- A closed-door means that something or someone inside doesn’t want to be exposed for any reason. It might be something horrific, something secret, or something that’s being formulated as a surprise or shock for later. One way to have closed-door opened is to come up with a clever, polite request, which may have the capacity to open closed doors and also, closed minds. Another way could be that I might knock gently on a closed door, but if it still doesn’t open, I won’t linger and worry why that door is closed. Instead, I’d look for another door that opens when it sees me. That might be a better option that might have been meant for me to take. If a door I want to open--such as a career choice or a personal wish--is closed at my face, then I’ll think that wasn’t meant for me, and I am sure powers-that-be have something more beneficial for my life instead. So, I’ll look for opportunities elsewhere. Yet, if someone shuts me in a room and closes the door on me so that I can’t get out, then I am going to kick that door open because I will not allow anyone to shut me, to let me rot, or shame me into silence without my consent. |
| Prompt: If you were to describe yourself as a tree, what kind of tree would you be? What do you see as your life cycle as a tree? ---- Since I have difficulty to see me as a tree, I'll write about the kind of tree I'd love to be. I would love to be an oak to supply acorns to cute squirrels. I like to see things from a distance but with everything surrounding them, and certainly, an oak has the larger view, especially from its top branches. In addition, oaks are deep-rooted and they can exist in clusters or as lone trees, and they hold their place, come rain or shine. I like my aloneness but I can also relate to people. In fact, I love people. An oak also casts a great shadow, sheltering other living things from the rays of the scorching sun in summer, and it provides a home for birds and feeds the earth it stands on with its fallen leaves turning to mulch underneath. All in all, an oak loves life and living things, and so do I. Several decades ago, our house in another state had a large backyard with about 200 oak trees, an apple orchard, and several other kinds of trees. It used to be my favorite place to live. There, I fell in love with the oaks, with their resilience, their regal bodies, and limbs with unassuming colors, only to be adorned with green in spring. We had a couple of hurricanes hitting the state, then. Although we lost a few other trees, none of the oaks fell. They were resistant and hardy. I think those are excellent qualities to wish for. |
| Do you still keep a personal journal? How is it different from your blog, or are the two connected in some way? ---- I wish I could keep to that journal all the time. I used to keep one until I got married. Then, for several reasons, I stopped. I wish I hadn’t. I lost so much material because of it. Now, I write in a physical personal journal every once in a while, but I am not good with it. I think in the bottom of my hesitancy lies the fact that after I die, the journal will stay and some people may be hurt reading what I say. As to my journal’s relationship with my blog, there is no relationship there. In the blog, I answer to prompts and I try to evade personal stuff, although I am totally honest with what I write.  Prompt: What have you learned from blogging? ---- I don’t know if I learned anything, but it is fun to see how each blogger responds to the same prompt. We are all different and our experiences are different, too. This makes the answers varied and interesting. I am guessing because I try to answer all the prompts and I usually write in a rush, my writing is gaining speed even if a form of triteness together with it; however, I am not complaining since my expression used to be more didactic, which I wanted to shake off. |
| Prompt: "I think quotes are very dangerous things." Kate Bush Do you agree with this? --- From where I stand, I think quotes make great prompts to write from, but to a person who doesn’t read or write much, I can see how they can be boring and even threatening. This may be because some people dislike the feeling when a quote deftly points to their shortcomings, especially if such people have never thought about or tried to improve their own internal workings. Prompt: “The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.” Leo Tolstoy Agree or disagree and what do you think Tolstoy meant? --- From the pen of a master, good vs.bad or good vs. good do not matter. Either theme will provide an excellent story. Still, in good vs.good, the conflict may have the inclination to grow larger and deeper. This resembles a couple of people at odds with each other with both showing equally good points; such a conflict attracts the interest of an onlooker more strongly, the onlooker being the reader. Surely, this theme is more interesting but also more difficult to write. The same clash may happen in real life when a couple in a relationship break apart and their friends don’t know what to do as they like each person equally. |
| Prompt: Which cartoon character best represents your personality? ---- Hahaha! I might have a personality split here. I might be the Piglet (A.A. Milne) or a Max Goof (Goofy’s son), at times, to turn into a Mighty Mouse. About the word Mighty, I might be wrong, of course. Very very wrong! Internally, I would have liked to be the Beauty in Beauty and the Beast, my favorite kiddie story of all time, if for nothing but for taming the beast and getting hold of his library. (Heck, in real life, I can't even tame a dog because of respect to a dog's personality.) Fact is, I don’t believe any one cartoon character represents me. I think I am a patchwork of several, like a patchwork quilt, and I might take under my cover just about everything.  |
| Prompt: "Technology is cool but you've got to use it as opposed to letting it use you." Prince Do you agree with Prince? --- I certainly do since we should never let anything or anyone use us, but is it possible with technology? When everything is computerized and all the companies you do work with ask you to do business with them on the web instead of the snail mail, when the third or fourth older generation have no inkling of the techie-talk the youngsters employ in conversations, and when even the government agencies prefer the web, how is it possible to use the technology instead of being used by it? Not that I am against it. On the contrary. At least, I am somewhat of a passable user, but there are a few oldies living around me who haven’t yet mastered cut-and-paste or are terrorized by the sudden pop-up ads on their computers, if they own a computer. Then, most or some of them cannot even use an android cellphone or even a flip-phone. They are now bound to loneliness or dependency on others. One of my neighbors complain that when their daughter and grand-kids come to visit, they spend more time with their phones than with her. I think, that is sad! Then, among the negatives are the fraud committed through technology and the websites that do not respect the individual and push on their users their political and social ideas and beliefs, or concepts dealing with everyday things. Despite all that, I love the new technology. I wish it was there when I was growing up and wanting to learn more and more. Not all is lost though because now, it helps me tremendously. Computerized checkouts for example, and having the option to order online instead of going from store to store looking for what I need, and if I am searching for a word or an information, the option to use a search engine. The new technology is entertaining, too. YouTube anyone? Needless to say, we are all on Writing.com right now, and that, in itself, is more than the frosting on the cake. It is the whole cake itself.  |
| Prompt: "This is the precept by which I have lived. Prepare for the worst, expect the best and take what comes." Hannah Arendt How do you feel about this quote? === Good quote! Possibly it would work for most people. As for me, I can’t expect the worst because I can’t foresee the worst or the best. So, I settle for the middling something. As to taking what comes, yes. That works very well for me. At times, it takes more guts than I have, but I take most anything on the chin and try not to blink. The worst may be heartrending, but the best could prove to be even worst than the worst because once you feel you’ve hit the best, where else to go and what else to do becomes a problem and turns life into something dull and unbearable. In that case, the best may prove out to be worst. In either case, worst or the best, for me, there is always scope for improvement. |
| Prompt: What kinds of things or events give a person a broken, shattered heart? --- Most people fall to pieces when they lose someone or a love affair, marriage, or a relationship goes sour and dies. As for me, what happened at 9/11 broke my heart more than the tragic ending of the relationship of my parents and the way it affected their lives to the ends of their lives. Plus, I feel shattered each time someone gets hold of a gun or something similar and commits mass murder, especially when that happens to innocent children in schools. Then I feel even more terrible when the newscasters bend the events to their biases to blame the wrong person or persons. When friends and people close to me die or fall in dire straits such as fatal illnesses and such unfortunate events, I feel broken, too. I also feel bad when I hurt someone, unknowingly or out of necessity, even when they are the one who caused it. It is a rough world, isn’t it! Prompt: According to you, what’s something that everyone, absolutely everyone, in the entire world can agree on? == After the basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, medical care) are taken care of, I think everyone wants a sense of belonging. That search for belonging makes people attach themselves to people or groups, even though sometimes those groups are against their best interests. Then, I am quite sure, we all want World Peace. We don’t like chaos, political, international, social, or personal, even if we cause all that and may not be aware of our own doings. Then comes learning, maybe. It may not be the kind they teach in schools but the kind people chase after themselves. It may even be something frivolous as what a neighbor is up to, but it is still learning, isn’t it! |
| Prompt: Have you ever traveled to a foreign country? What country would you most like to visit? ---- Yes, I have been to Canada, all over Europe, and a few places in the Middle East. Some but not all my impressions are in this book item: "Jottings From Journeys"  . Unfortunately, I didn’t/don’t get around to writing in it. I am not too crazy for travel, anymore, because I don’t think I have the guts to put up with the physical challenges of traveling, but I would have liked to go all over Ireland and Scotland. We did pass through Ireland, but it didn’t feel as if I’ve been there. Plus, I love the Irish and the authors from Ireland and Scotland. Then, when I traveled, rather than the sights and sounds, I focused on people more, which points to my people watching habits. I mostly found a connection with others, which made me more aware of my own self’s inclinations. Different cultures and how tolerant they are of strangers (or not) have added to the strength of my identity and love for the world. As they say, traveling can be a stress reducer, but it can also add to a person's stress. Honestly speaking, I get more stressed when I travel with people in my family, immediate or extended. I had my best travel experiences when I was alone. Still, as they say, traveling helps to reinvent yourself. It did, for me, probably only in the beginning. I think, at my age, I have been reinvented enough. Then, maybe I am not as adventurous as I used to think I was. |
| Prompt: "I do not understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to." Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings What does enchantment mean to you? ---- When I was a child, my small place (palace—I first typed by mistake) of enchantment was under the tables whose tablecloths hung to the floor. That probably started my lifelong need for solitude, at least now and then. Enchantment to me is a sudden feeling of delight as if hit by a magic spell. Usually, it happens with little things. Sometimes, my small places of enchantment stay in fleeting moments. The other day, while I was washing the dishes, a tiny bird watched me from the side of the roof. I took a photo of it since my cell was in my pocket, which isn’t a good likeness of it at all, but the moment was enchanting if only for a few seconds. Then, a few days earlier, I felt enchantment when a baby rabbit in the yard didn’t run away from me. Mostly, I find enchantment in a good book, a child’s face, a kind word my way, or the love shining in my family’s eyes. They are all my small places of enchantment. They are magic!   |
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But good job quickly redirecting back to the positive things.
