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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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Daily Cascade
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one.
Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.
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Prompt:
"If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden."
Write about this in your Blog entry today.
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I guess the trick in this quote lies in "if you look the right way." Yes, we should encourage and maintain the power of perception and the ability to find beauty and goodness in the world. This, of course, is a choice. But is it a choice to remain unaffected and mostly happy enough all the time? After all, who doesn't want the happy feelings, permanently!
Come to think about it, if that means turning a blind eye to the wars, injustice, and human suffering, doesn't such an approach make us extremely selfish? Plus, this type of uncaring, too, will have an effect on us and on those who turn a blind eye to what's wrong. This is because what we don't want to see and acknowledge can come to our door, into our houses or inns where we are hiding, and it can haunt, bother, or hurt us. Then, what about the idea of social consciousness, humanitarianism, and altruism in general? What about empathy?
Having looked at this from both sides, now, I am also going to add that having a positive outlook may not be about ignoring reality, but about recognizing that meaning and beauty often exist beneath the surface, somewhere. Personal struggles or uncertainty comes to mind, here. In my own case, I have greatly benefited from donning my positive lenses, almost always. Those positive lenses, even if they don't clear the negativity, they've let me view a situation from different angles while helping me get over the initial shock and heartbreak of any bad situation.
So, yes, if the quote is suggesting that our experiences are shaped not just by external circumstances but by the correct lens through which we view them, then I agree with it. But I won't look at a dying, injured living being and think, "How beautifully crimson is his blood!" I bet no one can do that, either.
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Prompt:
“Something must have gone awry with the programming. I have no idea where or when we are.”
Steven Decker, The Balance of Time
Do you think there is programming in our existence and do you ever feel like Steven Decker with all the goings on in this world?
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I think, we are programmed through our DNA's, to start with. Genetic code aside, if anything has gone awry, I can't tell if it was due to any booboo on the other types of programming or not; however, our behaviors, ideals, and other tendencies seem to change from century to century and even from decade to decade. So this means to me what programming exists, it is bound to change.
Then, in the same vein, isn't it possible that our brains' neurons were programmed by nature and later, they were-and are-subject to some kind of a revision programming? I am quite sure that we all were born with some innate reflexes and instincts, until learned behaviors set in and changed all those.
Here enters our social and psychological or, if you will, socio-psychological conditioning, in addition to biological, and neurological tendencies. This conditioning, in time, affects our offspring's neurons or even the DNA. Does this mean we have a cultural software built in? I tend to think so; however, as deeply embedded as that software maybe, we human beings also possess something called the free will.
Plus, some or rather very few of us become astute enough to recognize our own programming, and then, if it doesn't serve us, we deliberately alter it. Changing the ways of life, ideas, beliefs. and religions come to mind, here.
Then, unfortunately, most people are not aware that they have the capacity to change their programming and they end up staying enslaved to what was put into them, especially by the parents and the societies they are born into. I seriously think that is how and why we have wars.
With wars and disagreements, I don't want to name any actual sides or groups, here. So, for example, let's just say purple people are programmed to look down upon or even hate the magenta people for any outward reason. Then, any little thing the magenta people do, irks the heck out of the purple people. So, with the slightest provocation, they go at the magenta with huge armies and bombs, and of course, they get a similar response from the magenta people because the magenta people also think that, surely, magenta are the better ones by nature's or even by God's decree.
With or without wars, groups, nations, etc., programming is a layered construct in its essence. In addition to being a poetic metaphor and a scientific concept, it shows up as a testament to --or a curse-- what programming really subtracts from or adds to our survival as human beings.
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Prompt:
"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms."
Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
What is this quote saying to you, and how and why, do you think, a smile can be so important?
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The way I see it, a smile is a nonverbal communication. Plus, inside a smile can be hidden messages like warmth, friendliness, reassurance, gratitude, or even sarcasm or malice. On the positive side, a smile overcomes language barriers for me if I don't know the language of the other person I'm with.
This is because a heartfelt smile creates a sense of connection and trust. People who send genuine smiles to others can be viewed as more approachable and likable. Imagine this: You are in the middle of a busy store, searching for a specific object. And one of the clerks smiles at you. Wouldn't you be more likely to ask him or her where that something is that you're looking for?
Then, a genuine smile can be contagious because it lifts others' moods, lightens tense situations, and encourages a more positive environment. Also, it helps how other people--and I, too--will perceive a person. Would I be more likely to talk with a person who smiles at me or would I be talking to the person who is looking away? Surely, I'd go with the smiling person, unless I'm some kind of therapist who wants to help all the frowning people or some kind of a psycho who likes to get beaten upon.
I'm also quite sure that overall positivity plus a smile can help one's mental health and look on life as well as having a positive effect on the people around. Come to think of it, maybe even physical health, too, for I suspect my sons' and friends' smiles do help my physical health.
Not that I am always smiling, myself, though! But I wish I could and I wish everyone could. Then, maybe we'd be living in a much friendlier world!
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Prompt:
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
What do you think about this quote, and now that we're totally into our techie toys and the internet, do you keep a diary the old-fashioned way?
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If you don't count the train service between Long Island and Manhattan, it has been at least five to six decades that I have stepped in a train. I'm trying to picture in my mind how anyone can read their diary on a train full of nosy passengers, unless of course, one has a private compartment.
As to diaries, yes, I still keep a few for jotting stuff in, every now and then, and I have a special one I keep on a daily basis. The daily thing is a small notebook, regular off the shelf kind and not one of the fancy padded and beautified ones. I write in it every evening just one page at a time. I think I established this habit as a mental-health-care thing, and even if it might not have improved anything intended, this notebook became very close to me, as if a really good friend.
Then, I have another notebook I write into, every now and then, just to let my mind run wild and free, by using a sort of a stream of consciousness style, without even lifting the pen or correcting anything. This way, I'm simply capturing thoughts as they come.
Just about for everybody, keeping a diary or a journal reduces stress and anxiety by releasing thoughts and emotions and daily events down onto the paper. Even sometimes, when life hits hard, as one writes, one may come up with a solution to a problem one probably didn't think of earlier. Especially a gratitude journal, in which one can write everything one is grateful for, be it a found penny on the ground, helps just about anyone to look at life with more positive eyes.
Then, there are several kinds of keeping a diary or a journal. A painter friend I once knew used to keep a sketch journal. He sketched anything and everything he found interesting. During the eighties, I too was keeping a journal for recording my dreams. The other day, I found it and laughed my head off at my long-ago dreams. This means we can use a diary or a journal in any way we wish.
During these last few years, with all the new techie toys that are offered to us, I still cherish the notebook-and-pen kind, but then, there is nothing wrong to use the technical media if one so prefers. In fact, I came across this website where one can keep a private journal for free. https://penzu.com Although I have no intention of using this or any other such service for myself, this can be some help to many traveling people who only carry a cellphone or a small electronic pad with them.
No matter how and why we keep a diary or a journal, there is no right or wrong approach. It's all up to us. The simple act of getting in touch with ourselves is what is truly important.
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Prompt:
On this day in 1937, Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Gone with the Wind". Have you read the book? What did you think of the inherent racism of the novel and the sexual tension throughout most of the story and the suggestion of marital rape? Should it have won a Pulitzer Prize in your opinion?
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I have seen the movie, since my mother took me with her to a rerun to watch it, but I haven't read the book. At the time, Clark Gable was admired by all. Unfortunately, then, I didn't even know that the movie came from a book. So, afterwards, I didn't want to read the novel. Movies do that to me. They ruin any good literature, although if my memory serves me right, it was a pretty good movie. I know my mother discussing it for days and weeks.
Should the book have won the Pulitzer? I think it told the truth of its time. I understand that the novel itself was written from the perspective of a slave holder. It's said that the writer of the story, Margaret Mitchell, was a racist with this work and her other writings. I am not defending her but we have to consider that, in her time, most people were racists. I apply it to our time when we have grown up thinking that democracy is the best policy for governing a country, but what will the later generations think about that, say 100 years later? We'll have to live and see...
Back to the story inside "Gone with the Wind, " come to think of it, why would any author choose a spoiled, selfish, and stupid girl as her main character in an epic novel, a girl who was frivolous to the nth degree especially in the beginning. Yes, she did get what she deserved--well somewhat--at the end. The movie was a success due to the excellent portrayal of her by Vivian Leigh, who won an Oscar for it. I remember a lot about the movie because, later on, it showed up on the TV screen several times. In those earliest days of the movie industry, it is said that the movie-makers were more loyal to the books they made the movies from.
Yet, I bet, if I read the book itself, I would be fuming at Margaret Mitchell's third-person narrator. From the clips that are online, now, the ugly prejudiced way she relates the events of the day turned me off totally. Yet, as they say, the characterization was superb in the book as it was in the movie. So who am I to judge!
Then, at the end, I have to repeat Rhett Buttler's words to Scarlett, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"
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Prompt:
Let this quote inspire your entry today:
"Inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you're positive, good things happen."
Deep Roy
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I think with this quote, the word positive needs a much better definition. Positive about what?
Does this mean the authors have to be positive to embrace any idea that pops up their minds or does it mean they have to have a positive view of people and life, in general? Or does it even mean acting politely and nicely to any person, idea, place. or thing, even while not believing in its qualities?
As to inspiration itself, is it that eureka moment when the ideas come up suddenly or is it the result of wanting to create something? What about the common adage, 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? Just where does inspiration come from? People have different experiences and ideas about that, and so far that I know, there is no consensus.
Then, there are quite a few very famous authors who were not positive about some or most things. For one, Kafka might not have been positive about his own work. As he was hardly known in his lifetime, he ordered a friend of his to burn all his manuscripts after his death. That friend ignored Kafka's dying wish. totally. So, now, Kafka is famous and keeps on influencing those who try to imitate him.
Also, Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose work explored the human psychology and impressed me deeply during my high school years and still keeps on impressing me, was a depressed, complex person, with sometimes too strong, controversial religious and political views. He might have had moments of positivity, but in general, he wasn't really positive.
To top it all, Shakespeare, a poet and playwright that I admire for his dramatic flair, also had a volatile temperament that showed up every now and then. How about that!
As for me, I do like "positive" in my real life, and I try not to be a drama queen; however, I don't think whether I am positive or negative has an effect on my work in any area, let alone on my puny writing. 
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Prompt:
What is a happy home to you?
Write about this in your Blog entry today.
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At this point in my life, a happy home is a place or rather a situation where I have freedom to be myself. But then, I always was myself, at different stages of my life and with different or changing, maybe revolving, family members. I say revolving because my sons take turns to be around me nowadays, after they've flown the coup, and sometimes we manage for all of us to be together, even though other very important family members are not here, anymore, Yet, those who are deceased are still with us in our hearts and memories.
For me, a happy home is where, in addition to be myself and other members to be comfortable enough to be themselves, love is practiced all the time, laughter is common, and every member feels like they belong. This means much more than a physical space, but an environment where everyone feels accepted, valued, supported. and safe. This means respect, communication, encouragement and much understanding among the people in this happy home.
When we achieve these things and such cooperation, then we find that the time spent with the others in our home is one of quality and stability where we all feel we truly belong.
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