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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Everyday Canvas
"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.
November 30, 2016 at 7:05pm November 30, 2016 at 7:05pm
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Prompt: "Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little". Haley Gerth Do you agree with this? Should we be daring?
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Sure, I do. I am all for being daring, and I do that quite often, which confuses some of the readers.  I am not afraid of taking chances. I feel I can do what I want with my writing because I have no other intention than writing what I want to write. I am not always successful but I never go after success if that success is only for success itself, either.
After all, a story can be so well crafted that it will gain the admiration of even the strictest editor, but if it doesn’t have heart, what good is it? Where is its risk factor? It probably belongs in teaching materials that show how to make the best of the craft. When a writer takes a risk and goes after what his or her heart wants to put on the page, the work will shine in some way but also, from some other angle, it may also be a flop. Taking risks isn’t easy, but it is so much fun.
Yet, what does taking risks entail? What may we risk? I’ll make a list to be added to in the future. Here it goes:
Excluding one's regular readers and other people. This means the writer is in the habit of writing to suit or to please a certain group of people, and when he or she wavers from it, taking a risk, those people can be offended. Such as a commercial romance writer suddenly writing a heavy historical treatise and disappointing his/her readers.
Offending family, friends, and some prickly people who might think the writer is satirizing, displaying, or unmasking them.
Exposing oneself as to one’s relationships, background, past or present life, feeling, biases, hidden or over psychological traits, almost like being on a therapist’s couch, but then, we can always hide behind our characters, can’t we!
Wasting one’s time on a possible flop. I’m now reading a book called Vera, whose subject is the wife of Vladimir Nabokov. Vera was the woman behind her husband's success, and in writing Lolita, Nabokov took a great risk and his book couldn’t be published in the USA due to the moralizing criteria of its time. He knew that would be, and plus he risked his academic position, but he wrote it anyway. Finally, after many years of its completion, due to Vera's relentless efforts, the book was published in Paris. The story’s subject is taboo, yes, but it is mostly an intellectual love story rather than erogenous. Once the book's fame took off, it was adapted to screen at least a couple of times. Having said this, I would be hesitant to write anything on risky sex stuff, possibly because my lack of knowledge on the subject would show. But I can take risks in other areas without blinking an eye if the subject is after my heart.
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November 29, 2016 at 3:03pm November 29, 2016 at 3:03pm
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In The Treatise of Tahlan, an ancient treatise for samurais, Paulo Coelho says, “The more we feel we are in control, the farther we are from controlling anything at all. A threat gives no warning, and a quick reaction cannot be programmed like a walk on Sunday afternoon. So if you want to be in harmony with your love or with your fight, learn to react fast.”
How good are you in reacting fast? How good are the characters you create? Do you ever think about their reaction time?
I am not too slow with my reaction time, but I am not super-fast either. I usually take a few seconds to take in and assimilate the situation first. Then, if I know what to do, I react. There have been times I have reacted instinctively, also. This is true for situations and happenings, but if anything is verbal like an insult or a threat, I freeze in shock. Several hours or days later, I think of a good comeback.
I never thought about giving specific reaction times to my characters. I guess I might have burdened them with mine  , but when I saw the quote, I thought it would be a good trait to think of when creating a character.
Prompt: What do you think resiliency is? Are you or someone you know resilient? What are resilient people like?
Resiliency is not giving up; it is mental toughness. No matter what happens to you or around you, you are a resilient person if you somehow overcome the shock or the surprise of the event and continue on with your life as well as you can. I hung a saying on the wall right where my desk is and where I can see it. It says, “When something goes wrong in your life, just yell, ‘plot twist’ and move on.” That ‘moving on’ idea is the key to resiliency.
How do you feel about creating themed Christmas trees? Do you feel it's fashionable to follow the different trends? Or do you feel its more important to keep the family traditional tree? What's your favorite ornament on the tree?
I’m always for tradition, and I don’t like anything too showy or sparkly. I don’t have a specific favorite ornament but I value several things that point to some person or an event in my family and friends.
"The most painful realization as an adult is that most people are not interested in meaningful exchanges!"~Elle Nash.
Do you agree or disagree with Nash? What do you consider meaningful exchanges?
I kind of agree, but who can really pinpoint what a meaningful exchange is for any one person? What is a meaningful exchange for me can be hogwash for someone else. I think most people evade meaningful anything for fear of being considered a snob, a nitwit, or a fool with an agenda.
Since I like people, whatever they wish to converse about becomes a meaningful exchange to me, as long as they talk about what is really important to them and they are not trying to just fill up the time.
Write a love or a rant poem/ short story from the perspective of a pirate ship captain writing to the woman he loves. It's your blog, have fun. Maybe after the holiday dinner you have some pent-up frustration to vent.
Wind belts waves on my sea of storms
and I cheer for you’re the rum in my cask
On the deck are some scattered bones
Pick them up, I hope you’re up to task!
Here’s the lantern, here’s the broom
for my bride who loves his groom.
The moral is: That’s what a lady gets for falling for a pirate. So, ladies, move on and let pirates be!
Prompt: What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods? Do you cook your own or do you like when someone else cooks them?
I used to cook everything myself. During the later ten or fifteen years, we spent Thanksgiving with my son’s in-laws. This year, the lady of the house was taking care of her sick brother, so we all went out to lunch in a restaurant.
Prompt: What was your best Thanksgiving? What was your worst Thanksgiving?
All my Thanksgivings were pretty good, although I can’t choose a best one.
The worst one was when I had invited a lonely friend and her two kids over. My little boy, four years old then, who didn’t quite grasp the meaning of the holiday, blurted out in the middle of the dinner, “Why are we having people here who aren’t family? Thanksgiving is a family holiday. Darren (his friend next door) said so.” That was a just-shoot-me moment for me. I wanted to spank him so bad and I’ve never spanked my kids. My husband luckily took over and said that “Friends are family for us,” etc. My son certainly got an earful from me later, in private.
Prompt: Can you find a positive meaning in a negative situation or even in a word, such as revenge, mayhem, pain, etc.? Come up with your own example, if you wish.
It is hard to find a positive meaning in a negative situation when one is inside that situation, but in hindsight, every situation has a positive and a negative. We just need the eyes to see it in its totality.
As to the words, revenge can be sweet when one can do unto other as they have done unto him, although it is more saintly to forgive for the sake of general peace.
Mayhem can lead to revolution and a better way of handling conflict, although mayhem in itself is disconcerting.
Pain urges us to seek for a remedy as it may point to a hidden problem. Whether the pain is emotional or physical, it rings alarm bells to urge us into action.
Prompt: In his 1821 essay "A Defence of Poetry," Percy Bysshe Shelley writes, "Poetry is...the perfect and consummate surface and bloom of all things; it is as the odor and the color of the rose to the texture of the elements which compose it...." Make a list of words and phrases that describe the surface textures, odors, and colors that surround you as this year draws to an end, choosing the details that are most evocative of the season. What influences you the most?
rich shades of violet, burgundy, maroon, wine
yellows, oranges, salmon orange, rust
waves over the ocean, surf
the color and smell of tea,
all kinds of palm trees
squirrels, field mice
gourds on display in the supermarket
pumpkins, acorns,
the memory of tiger lilies and foliage of Northeast
cardigans, lost mittens
Everything can influence me. Usually, it is the thing that isn’t out there glaring in front of the the eyes, but those minute things and events of nature that usually go unnoticed.
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November 19, 2016 at 6:19pm November 19, 2016 at 6:19pm
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Prompt: "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."~ Marcus Aurelius
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."~ Marcus Aurelius
Do you agree or disagree with Mr. Aurelius? Please discuss both of his quotes.
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I mostly agree with whatever Marcus Aurelius--the kindest Roman Emperor--said, ever since a high school lit teacher gave me his Meditations. Still, I don’t have to agree with him 100% on everything, such as the phrase ‘everything we hear.’ Everything we hear can be gossip or the crash of two objects or thunder. Some things may be facts, others not.
On a stormy day, if several people have heard the thunder and some have seen the lightning, then it is thunder; this I wouldn’t call an opinion, but if someone says something about someone or an event and people believe it without checking the factual side of it, it becomes an opinion based on perspective and hearsay.
As to the second quote, continuing with the thunder image, one may be afraid of thunder or not. That fear comes from the mind, not the thunder itself because, in its meteorological essence, the sound of thunder happens after the fact of lightning. Lightning is something one probably should fear if not in a safe place, but not thunder. The knowledge of this points to the power of control of a person over his or her mind.
On the same token, one should not fear empty gossip that an elected official is a bad person but one should grasp or find the fact of something happening if it is really happening, such as that official actually proposing a new law that could deny the citizens’ inalienable rights, or a terrorist attack, or an alien or a zombie invasion, should there be one, ever.
Since we are on Marcus Aurelius, I’d like to finish this entry off with one of my favorite quotes by him: “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
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November 18, 2016 at 6:01pm November 18, 2016 at 6:01pm
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"Theologians talk about a prevenient grace that precedes grace itself and allows us to accept it, I think there must also be a prevenient courage that allows us to be brave...to make ourselves useful. It allows us to be generous, which is another way of saying exactly the same thing." Marilynne Robinson
Explore the connection between courage and generosity. What do you find are the greatest emotional challenges to doing something so bravely useful?
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I think the quote is really talking about divine grace in a person’s life, with reference to the different positions of the several branches of varied theological systems. The quote-sayer Marilynne Robinson believes that like divine grace, a divine courage could be there to allow us to have the courage to be useful and generous. If one believes and works from the standpoint that everything comes from God, then this stance makes sense, but then, not everyone is such a strong believer.
With or without inserting God into the action, some of us have to gather ourselves together and find that courage—actually any courage—within us to do anything. As to generosity needing courage, I am not very sure of that idea. If one sees someone else needing something he or she can give, why would one need courage for it? What one needs, in fact, is empathy and logic because the heart or rather the intelligence of the heart is needed in the core of a person’s being for him or her to show generosity.
The only place where courage is needed for generosity could be in the execution of the generous acts. The questions that may need careful consideration before doing a generous act can be: Shall I hurt this person’s feelings by giving her/him what I have? By going to this person’s aid, am I doing him or anyone else any harm? What if the advantage I grant to this person is used not for the good of him or others or even the nation? If this act of generosity means a sacrifice of any kind, would this sacrifice hurt or help this person and other people, and how much this sacrifice will cost me in terms of my family’s, friends' and my own physical, emotional, or spiritual well-being?
For authentic, unselfish generosity to happen, it needs to also be heartfelt and logical. Otherwise, I could just stand on a street corner and throw dollar bills and butter cookies all over the place and call myself generous.
Prompt: At the root of joy is gratitude and both abound in this annual autumn repast. From far and wide, loved ones gather to share a simple banquet with those they love. I love Christmas but I feel stores start putting Christmas items out too early and we need to remember Thanksgiving and give it, it's day. Black Friday should start Friday, not Thanksgiving Day. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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I think gratitude is the main reaction we need to feel not only during Thanksgiving but also during all the holidays and all the days of our lives because gratitude is much more than a turkey or a pumpkin pie. As opposed to wanting to get things, gratitude focuses on what we already have. In addition, it can be cultivated to increase the feeling of well-being and happiness.
Being thankful for what we have or for the status quo can cause us to engage life more willfully and experience healthy emotions because our thankfulness builds self-esteem, improves relationships, and helps attract positive interest from others. This is because thankful people are less likely to retaliate when criticized since they find a spiritual connection to a constructive force to steer the direction of their lives. In the same vein, people who regularly practice thankfulness can endure traumatic experiences much more effectively.
In short, when we look at what and who we already have and think about the source of these gifts, this perspective leads us on a positive road and opens many doors to surprising opportunities.
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November 16, 2016 at 8:50pm November 16, 2016 at 8:50pm
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Prompt: "Magic exists. Who can doubt it when there are rainbows and flowers and the music of the wind and the silence of the stars. Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of our lives." Nora Roberts
A beautiful quote. Write whatever you want about this.
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The quote says it better than I can, but I’ll add to it since it is the prompt for writing.
The dilemma of the existence of magic is not in questioning if magic exists but in the sense why anyone cannot find the magic that’s already there. Talking for myself, I see magic all the time.
I love looking at ordinary things and events and seeing the complex world full of magic and beauty. I can see the magic in what exists and in the potential of what might exist.
That potential is especially fascinating to me. It’s as if I explore places I will never get the chance to go to in reality, such as foggy forests, ghostly trees entangled with fear and mystery, that hauntingly beautiful full moon whose photo never does it justice, glimmering starts fighting the city lights, clouds piling on top on one another in different colors and shapes, and everything that is enchanting, eerie, and with huge fairytale eyes.
Then what about my first steaming cup of tea in the morning? That image after waking up from my relentless dreams is magic to me. Isn’t my tea's color steeped in transparency magical? What about its aroma, its taste? Things like these in my life make me believe that magic is in what I see, what I hold, what is around me, and what I can imagine or be inspired from just by observing life. After all, isn’t the fact that I have breathed for so many years a miracle, and isn't every breath any one of us takes a miracle? What about the touch of a friend, a child, a stranger, a lover? Aren’t these senses and feelings miraculous, enchanting, and charming?
To me, magic is something that enchants us. Our existence, in its essence, when we think about it, is enchanting, too. In fact, everything that is in creation is enchanting if we look carefully to see it. And if can look to see that magic, it may be possible for us to feel and hopefully sense the real magic behind all magic in everything, which is the creator hinting at his own existence through his creation.
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November 15, 2016 at 3:30pm November 15, 2016 at 3:30pm
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Prompt: Jodi Picoult says about Shakespeare: “Here’s what I love about Shakespeare: In his day, he wrote unadulterated popular fiction. And yet—who do we still read, centuries later? What a brilliant reminder that highbrow literature wasn’t always an obscure title—in fact, it used to be the books and plays that we now call commercial fiction.”
Taking a hint from Jodi Picoult, do you believe today’s popular fiction could be tomorrow’s highbrow literature?
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Highbrow is defined as elite, intellectual, and high culture. Pop culture is considered to be lowbrow, infantilizing, and according to some, stupid and flashes-in-the-pan. Then, critics for centuries have shared a sense that the rise of pop culture is new and dangerous because, according to them, pop culture’s cherished work cheapened the tastes of the reading and theater-going public, especially in the case of Shakespeare in the earlier centuries.
Talking of Shakespeare, one of the critics of his time, Samuel Pepys, wrote, “We saw Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.”
Robert Greene a critic of Shakespeare’s time called Shakespeare ‘shake-scene’ and told his contemporary playwrights to be wary of him and not do what he did. I guess he was unhappy that Shakespeare, a mere actor, had the nerve to write plays and make a career out of it.
Then Leo Tolstoy called Shakespeare’s plays “trivial and positively bad” and his popularity “pernicious.”
All these people were considered to be the high-brows of those earlier times. Yet, nowadays, having a full-fledged knowledge of Shakespeare’s work causes a reader or theatergoer to be considered a well-rounded high-brow.
As to today’s popular fiction becoming a high-brow literature, say two centuries from now, I think, what happened to Shakespeare’s work is very likely to happen to the popular works of our time, also. Case in point, after resisting to read the Outlander series and Harry Potter for a long time, I finally caved in and read them during the past year. Not only were those books enjoyable for me, but inside them were solid passages, scenes, and characterization that, in my opinion, made them good candidates for the classic literature of future millennia.
Chances are each era will come up with its own literature and what it considers literary. As the past has shown and I have found out personally, I am quite sure many popular stories together with the high-brow ones of our time will be forgotten; however, some will stay strong and flourish. From that point of view, I believe, Jodi Picoult has astutely shown a literary vision.
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November 14, 2016 at 5:58pm November 14, 2016 at 5:58pm
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Prompt: What fears have actually come true in your life or, if you’d rather, a friend or a family member’s life?
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Michel de Montaigne said, “There were many terrible things in my life and most of them never happened.” I read Montaigne’s essays at a very early age in life, in fact, when I was in my late teens, and this quote became the perfect direction to which my rational compass pointed. It taught me not to be afraid, which didn’t always work for I can be a genuine scaredy cat at times, but the quote was there all along working in my subconscious nevertheless.
Looking back now, I find out just about nothing I worried about took place, and if it did, its effects were either immediate or much subdued. The only occasion I recall that what I feared came true was when my older son wanted to climb a difficult tree when he was fourteen. His only aid was a thin rope. I told him not to do it and that rope would not hold his weight, but he didn’t listen. Sure enough, he fell from about the first four or five feet on the trunk and broke his arm. This one I tried to prevent because of my fear, but couldn’t.
On the other hand, the things I didn’t fear or never even thought of suddenly jumped at me, proving themselves to be what I should really have feared instead. Taking off from those experiences, maybe we should not fear what we are consciously fearing.
One fear, a worldwide one, that I feared together with everybody was a nuclear war that would be the result of the cold war. Guess what? It didn’t happen.
What happened instead was Al Kaida, Isis, Middle East, etc. And now, those occurrences, too, we fear will be leading us to a World War III, which may possibly end up in a nuclear war. Should we fear that? Maybe or maybe not, but judging from the way the things have evolved in the past, it is highly possible something totally different will come up.
Let’s see. What about an asteroid hitting the earth or an alien invasion from the Andromeda galaxy or someplace like it? How about a zombie invasion? Should we fear those things?
I think not, and neither should we fear the rule of a president we voted or not voted for because we cannot see into the future, and unfortunately, we are only projecting our fears into it, and the emotion of fear is only useful when our physical being is really, truly threatened. Other than that, fear is an unproductive, futile reaction.
Just my two cents!
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November 13, 2016 at 1:57pm November 13, 2016 at 1:57pm
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Prompt: There is a personality trait in many people; it is something you really admire, but you don't possess much of it. However, there is a way you can trade your most favorite thing about yourself in order to attain this trait. Are you or are you not willing to make that deal, and what are the traits involved?
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I admire people who, when attacked with a put-down, give back what they’ve gotten or come up with a scalding and strong reply. As for me, nada, nil, zilch! Ever since I was a kid, if attacked verbally, I freeze; my brain is put on hold and I stand there like a totem pole with an ax stuck in its middle. After the fact, however, I can and do think of the cleverest retorts. Go figure!
I thought about this and came to the conclusion that the best way could be to imagine put-downs by certain people and store those ready-made replies inside my brain; however, the practice of this feels to be such a negative way of thinking that I feel if I did this, I would lose my self-respect. Anyhow, one never knows from which angle the put-down will come, although one can easily guess from which people it may originate.
Would I trade one of my most favorite traits in order to be able to come up with good replies? I don’t think so. Although I really admire the quick-and-effective-retort ability in others, I am not ready to give up a part of me, which I like and is important. So, I guess, for the rest of my life, I’ll stand mute like a dummy when a certain someone or other picks on me.
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November 12, 2016 at 1:10pm November 12, 2016 at 1:10pm
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Prompt: "It's not going to be easy. They know we know about them." ... "Do you think they know that we know about them?"
It's your blog, have fun creating whatever tickles your fancy.
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Forgive me if I butt in the conversation between the two of you and your entourage, but definitely, they know that you know about them.
They know that you are holding back from telling to the whole universe what you know about what they have in their command. They know that you know that the future is now and proof of it is in their drones, Roomba vacuums, curved TVs, and other not-so-secret things. This, however, is not the entire panoramic view or a time-lapse photography trick they are employing.
They know that you know they are in the matrix and have a good sense of light, the velocity of burning, high temperatures, fusion, and fission. They know that you know they live on the ground and you are detecting their two basic types of beings: that one type shining bright with their light coming from their insides and the other type so dark that they blend into the shadows of the landscape. They know that you’ve also detected the minute variations within the two types and that you can’t figure out why both types are wearing clothing. Yes, clothing. Pants, shoes, socks, shirts, dresses, coats, the works, and the intense activity going on while these people travel inside objects just like you in your round space-objects.
Moreover, they know that you have just gotten whipped across a large distance and are on a mission, watching them and ready to intervene if their two types get into a skirmish and they are cueing in on you as beings inside the objects in the sky, monitoring the Oval Office and their national security secrets.
Except, don’t expect them to feed you extra information through their servers for those servers are too faulty for you to grasp, even when their two types may entertain in their minds dangerously complicated objectives. In other words, you should handle deviously your checking on their warring protocols, should the unforgivable begin to take place.
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November 11, 2016 at 2:41pm November 11, 2016 at 2:41pm
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Prompt: November 10th we lost one of my favorite artists, Leonard Cohen. If you are familiar with his work, share with us what you enjoyed. Have you read his poetry or his books? If you are not familiar discuss an artist that has passed that you loved.
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I haven’t read Leonard Cohen, but I am familiar with his fantastic music, which has influenced other art forms greatly, for example, the movies, and paintings like Dance me to the end of love, which inspired a popular Jack Vettriano painting with the same title. Then I also love his many other songs such as, off the top of my head, Take This Waltz, You Got Me Singing, To Love Somebody, Picnic in the Park, I tried to Leave You…etc.
Any death leaves us sad, especially if it is that of an 'artiste' in life or in any art form. I felt bad a few months ago when Pat Conroy passed away, as his writing almost talked to me. He wrote everything from the heart, and I read all his books, and because of him, I even read his wife Cassandra King’s books. I felt bad for Pat Conroy’s passing because of selfishness. I am selfish to think that an artist has died and he won’t be writing for me, again. Other than that, I have to believe him to be in a better place and that death is inevitable in our human experience.
Prompt: Writing isn't a hobby. It is a way of life. Do you agree?
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Absolutely. At least for me, it is a way of life as it is an inquiry into living this life, kind of “What’s it all about, Alfie?” It is also a serious game that encourages me to play with words, phrases, and ideas.
Moreover, in essence, we are all lonely, no matter how many loved ones, friends, and people we may have around us and even if we don’t consciously feel loneliness. Plus, that loneliness cannot be told in its entirety for it is larger than life, other people’s understanding, and even our own understanding.
In writing, that loneliness emerges to express itself in bits and pieces. Then, as a companion to that loneliness, writing life is lonely, too. That is probably why writing is good for the soul. It is also good for the personality as it observes and interprets the input from life and produces our feedback to it. Sometimes we write from our whole self, other times from its bits and pieces. In any case, writing makes life bearable and it is a good defense against the boredom from it.
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November 9, 2016 at 11:02am November 9, 2016 at 11:02am
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Prompt: “Memories are nice little possessions as long as you don't ignore the present when you go out to play.” Nora Roberts How do you feel about this? Write anything you want about this.
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I totally agree with what Nora Roberts says in this quote. The Present is what matters, although one may find pleasure in remembrances. After all, the Past has been a good teacher, but now, it is only a ghost, and I’m all for living fully in the present.
Even if the past can be full of splendid memories, we can never have it back, but what we can only do is to seize the day, cause something delightful to happen, enhance our lives, ease others’ burdens, and help ourselves and the people around us laugh and love again.
Prompt: Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist and Mark Robert Waldman, a communications expert wrote in Words Can Change Your Brain , “A single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.” Do you believe that by changing your words, you can change your life? What words do you choose to call yourself and to focus your energy on, and do you think they are signaling you who the-self-in-you is?
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According to the scientists, the cognitive part of our frontal lobes is deeply influenced by words. That is why the coaches, in sports and in mental health, stress the importance of positive affirmations. This may be partly because we may be accustomed to worrying as a defense mechanism that was put in from the primal times of human existence when people were always in danger of being hurt or killed. Danger produces fear and fear causes stress-producing hormones to flood our bodies. This shuts down our logic and reasoning, making us worry or feel depressed for nothing.
On the other hand, when we provide the stimulus of positive words and thought, we find that, in time, our worrying subsides and we are happier than before. It may be a good idea to keep track of the times we think negatively and even write them down, and in reverse, replace the negative words with positive ones.
For example, before learning about this replacement trick, when I broke something or didn’t do some things right, I used to berate myself inside my head with words like ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ or ‘I did it again!’ Then I started to replace those word-thoughts with positive ones. I think, now, my life flows easier when I do this.
Does this mean that I am never cross with myself? No, I have always been harder on myself than on others, but when a negative reproach or thought surfaces, I now replace it with a positive one, and I think, this new attitude works very well for me.
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November 7, 2016 at 12:33pm November 7, 2016 at 12:33pm
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Prompt: When writing fiction, is showing the race of a character important especially when it has no bearing on the plot? Why or why not?
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I find the showing the race of a person to be unnecessary unless the author is writing about a racial issue or a historical fact such as the Selma March. After all, saying that character A is purple, character B is blue, character C is green will take away from who these characters really are as to their core values, personalities, and the way they relate to the others and the settings in the story.
On the other hand, I am not putting down those writers who employ such character portrayals as they may have been looking to create more diverse representation; however, when the character’s race is mentioned only when he or she is non-white, this practice may be taken as a referral to the fact that white race is the norm. This is especially damaging to the self-images of the children of any race.
In addition, the readers are cheated out of their own imaginings of what the characters are like. For this very reason, a good number of noted writers do not show the facial and bodily make-up of their characters, unless a certain asset or defect has a direct connection to the plot.
With the specific situation of race relations in the USA, I believe, it is better not to perpetuate unconscious biases by singling out racial elements unnecessarily, and instead, to let the readers imagine the looks of the characters they are reading about, unless identifying the race of a character is important to the plot or the theme.
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November 6, 2016 at 7:07pm November 6, 2016 at 7:07pm
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Prompt: Pick a good news story and start a conversation about it. (not related to politics) What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you feel that others will agree? If so, why? If not, why not?
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News Story: What the Wells Fargo scandal teaches us about white-collar crime
David Brodwin - U.S. News & World Report - Friday, November 4, 2016
Well, opening two million retail bank accounts fraudulently is certainly a huge white-collar crime; plus, it is from within the bank itself. I don’t care who resigns or who is let go, I think the entire bank is to blame. This is not one or two persons’ crimes. It is widespread.
I am not sure what the prevention of white-collar crime has to be, but surely actions leading to the crime ought to be taken into consideration. In the case of Wells Fargo, I think it has to do with the board of directors, executives, and their actions such as putting extra pressure on the lower staff through incentives and excess encouragement to open new accounts. What happened as the result is, in fact, some kind of a theft, a theft from the stockholders and law-abiding citizens.
Still, I don’t think it will be easy for the regulators or the criminal justice system to stop similar crimes. After all, when someone steals and uses someone else’s credit card number, it is considered to be only a misdemeanor, and because it is a misdemeanor, no agency or any police force goes after such crimes. Certainly, all kinds of theft and ID stealing should be a crime more than a misdemeanor, and I am sure most anyone will agree to that, if only the justice system could see through the opaque political veil over its face.
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November 5, 2016 at 8:10pm November 5, 2016 at 8:10pm
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Prompt: "It's funny how humans can wrap their minds around things and fit them into their own version of reality." Do you agree or disagree with this assessment of humans, and have you seen someone create their own version of reality when you actually know differently?
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I sure do agree with that assessment, and I have seen and even lived with people who create their own version of reality. In a way, we may all be doing that to a small degree, but there are those who give you an electric shock with the way they assess a factual event and come up with an imagined explanation.
Without naming names of pointing a finger to someone or other, the ones who tend to create reality are those who take their subjective beliefs as irrefutable, unbiased, singular truths. Similarly, some people assess a given situation or event in a far more different way than the way others see it, regardless of the available information on the subject. Moreover, some of those people have a powerful need to be right, and this need of theirs is as inflexible and limited as their thinking and their powers of assessment.
On the opposite end, a person who doesn’t have her or his identity or value systems invested in being right can lead a happier life and allow himself or herself opportunities for growth and learning. Not needing to be right can make a person to be a better listener to others because such a person is a secure one with a strong sense of self.
People’s reality is probably designed according to their needs; still, if a stone falls from a construction, it is a stone from a construction, not a devil in flight or God’s wrath upon the passersby. Any sane person would see it that way.
The way we all judge reality is a matter of perception, however. Those who adapt reality to their needy thinking are people whose perceptions rely on their past experiences, imagination, desires, or self-interest. There are also those with physical or mental disabilities whose problems create different perspectives. One thing to keep in mind is that no one can see everything in its entirety, and each person’s perception depends upon where she or he stands and the way he or she looks at life.
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November 4, 2016 at 7:06pm November 4, 2016 at 7:06pm
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Prompt: What have human beings become? Did war make us evil or did it just activate an evil lurking inside us? Are we guilty of making permanent decisions based on temporary feelings?
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I think human beings are the way they have been all along, rather than becoming good or bad. It is just that, the inventive species that we are, our weapons have changed through our learning, for the more we have learned the more we have become good or bad.
As to the wars, when people are crossed or stepped upon, they react negatively, which is instinctive and immediate, most of the time. When this happens on a larger scale and between nations instead of people, wars become the result. I believe,over the centuries through the positive influences of certain belief systems and psychology’s advances, a good number of people have learned tolerance and acceptance, and they do not jump the gun at the first provocation.
Yet, there are still many people who do not practice patience when provoked, whose shadowy sides aren’t trained to see the good in everyone, and who do not care about doing good to others. They are the ones who start the wars and brainwash the rest of the folks to believe and act like them.
The brainwashed are the ones who are guilty of making permanent decisions based on temporary feelings. Unfortunately, sometimes, they are not aware that they are being used through the manipulation of their feelings.
Still, to act on our feelings is only being human, and most or at least some of the time, our feelings can be good compasses, but we have to sense and investigate their origins, so we are not led to act as the puppets of wayward monsters.
Prompt: Curses only have power if you let them. Do you agree? Do other concepts of life have power as well?
This depends on what kind of a curse. A four-letter curse thrown the way of my friends and family would make me see red; however, if at me, I’d shake it off immediately, with no problem.
If the curse is the kind uttered by witches and similar beings, I have to believe in that supernatural stuff to have the curse have any power on me. Even if I did believe in such a thing, I’d probably end up returning the same curse, gift-wrapped.
What has any power on people, especially children, are the names people call them. Call a child an incompetent, and he or she will feel and show incompetence. This is true if the name-caller is a parent, a teacher, or a mentor.
The same is true for adults. Sometimes, a negative comment will damage an adult‘s progress or success. Words have power on the human psyche; therefore, we must be careful and pay attention to what we say and whose words we take to heart.
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November 2, 2016 at 2:27pm November 2, 2016 at 2:27pm
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Prompt: What elements can a writer use to make his work in the horror genre scary?
The best works in the horror genre force the reader to pay attention to every word written or said; therefore, the economy in wording and the clarity of expression are the most important elements the same as they are in most genres.
The other genre-specific elements for horror are:
• Fear : Fear is best used when implied rather than pointed out mostly through foreshadowing, and the most important of all fears is the fear of dying, especially for characters the readers empathize with when they are in situations where they face death or when they can be hurt physically or emotionally. A good horror writer can easily spin the element of fear into anyone, any object, event, or idea.
• Mood: Establishing the mood is very important and is closely related to fear. To see how the mood can be established, I suggest watching the beginning of Hitchcock’s Birds and seeing how the dark, clouds and other components of the day forewarn what is to come.
• Suspense: Suspense is the result of fear and keeps the reader waiting on edge for something or other to happen, dependent on what happened earlier. Suspense provides the hook for the reader to keep on reading.
• Mystery: Mystery is another hook. Mystery is leaving something unexplained but through foreshadowing keeping the interest of the reader until the climax when the mystery is solved. Mystery in a horror story may be accomplished by leaving some things out to the reader’s imagination.
• Surprise: Sudden surprises may add to or enlarge the original fear idea. Most surprises come at the end of a long suspense, in an unexpected way. For example, a man running away from a serial killer escapes into the woods to be attacked by a pack of wolves.
• Pictures and props: This means the imagery or symbols, such as a graveyard, a haunted house, props for killing knives, chainsaws, guns or any object made into something other than its original intent.
• Characters: Killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, monsters, masked beings, and other entities imagined by the writer.
Prompt: Make a list of 10 things that make you smile.
I smile when I think of these things:
1. My background and those who have been important in my life
2. That my mind and body are still working
3. That I wake up each morning and I am still breathing and so is my husband
4. My two sons and daughter-in-law and extended families
5. Everything that I can do & WdC
6. The way answers for difficulties come to me
7. The beauty of the earth and nature
8. That all my needs are taken care of
9. That I can be of help to someone, sometimes
10. Everything else good or bad because anything that happens reminds us that we are alive.
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