Day: November 15, 2021

Some Like It, Some Don’t

Fandango17 Comments

When I first started growing my beard while in graduate school, most of the girls I went out with were shocked that I did that, complaining that kissing me, with my stubble, was like rubbing their faces against gritty sandpaper. But then I met a woman who loved my whiskers. She confessed to me that she wrote in her diary that my stubbly face made her pulse quicken and gave her feel a tingling sensation in a sensitive part of her body.

Of course, I married her.

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (shock) Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (grit), Ragtag Daily Prompt (whisker), My Vivid Blog (diary), and Word of the Day Challenge (quicken). Photo credit: GettyImages.

Share Your World — 11/15/2021

Fandango9 Comments

For this week’s edition of Share Your World, Melanie is going deep. I think she’s trying to steal my Provocative Question thunder, because he questions this week are quite provocative.

In your opinion, what should be humanity’s goal?

Like all other living creatures, the most fundamental goal is to survive, but unless we get our act together and take decisive, definitive action to combat climate change, secondary goals, like food shelter, health, and happiness, will be moot.

Are you hesitant to speak your opinions?

One of the reasons I started blogging was to freely express my honest thoughts, opinions, and perspectives. At the time, I worked at a very conservative firm and I quickly learned that discussing my views on politics, religion, or anything that diverged from their deeply ingrained conservatism, was neither welcomed nor appreciated. So I stopped “speaking” my opinions and started blogging them.

In what ways has society changed during your lifetime? What do you think caused these changes?

Society — at least segments of American society — has become much more intolerant, much more divided and divisive, and much more willing to embrace partisan politics and conspiracy theories over science, facts, and truth. Most of you are going to disagree with — and possibly be offended by — my position on what has caused these changes, but I blame it on organized religion, which teaches people to behave like sheep rather than individuals and to cling to those who share common beliefs rather than to be open to critical, rational thinking. Oh, also the reverence most of these conservative, religious people have for Donald Trump.

Now do you see why I am hesitant to “speak” my opinions?

If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow this person to be your friend?

I would appreciate having a friend who was open, honest, and forthright with me. So yeah, I’d want such a person to be my friend indefinitely.

GRATITUDE SECTION

I am grateful to all of you who have passed on your positive thoughts and well wishes after I posted that I might have cancer of the prostate. Thanks to each of you.

Blogging Insights — Blogging As a Tool

Fandango7 Comments

For her weekly Blogging Insights prompts, Dr. Tanya provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is unattributed.

When I first started blogging in 2005, I never intended to “change the world.” I also never intended to “share my shopping list.”

My only intention was to express myself “in writing,” and I had no particular end game in mind, no specific niche, and no definitive goal. And now, 16 years later, not much has changed. My blog is still a tool to express myself.

What has changed is that now I am part of a global community of bloggers, which is something I never expected to experience when I began blogging. So I’d say that blogging is a means to expand one’s horizons well beyond what might otherwise be within reach and to meet and interact with others from all around the planet who also enjoy expressing themselves “in writing.”

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #144

Fandango8 Comments

Welcome to Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenging bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.

The photo below is from Ross Sneddon at Unsplash.

For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows a man sitting on a stool in front of a red backdrop as he prepares to either be photographed or to be interviewed on camera.

If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Grit

Fandango14 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to November 15, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “grit.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.