Day: May 30, 2022

#WDYS — Anguish

Fandango16 Comments

Sophie pulled her hoodie up over head to try to stop the noise. It didn’t help. She put both hands on the side of her head and pressed on her ears. Again, it didn’t help. She knew it was coming from inside of her head. She knew that only she could hear it. But she just wanted it to stop.

Sophie used to be able to ignore it when she first experienced it. It would only enter her consciousness when she thought about it. Or when it was very, very quiet where she was. Or when she didn’t get much sleep and was tired.

But lately the noise was constant and almost unbearable. Sophie went to see her doctor, who referred her to an otolaryngologist, who referred her to a neurologist. But each patiently explained that there was nothing they could do about it, no known cure, and she’d just have to learn to live with it.

Sophie worried that her electronics — her laptop, her smartphone, her Alexa, her smart TV, her internet, her WiFi, her microwave oven — were causing the constant noise inside of her head. She decided to off grid and to rent a cabin in the woods. No laptop, no smartphone, no Alexa, no TV, no internet, no microwave. Just nature.

After a few weeks, the noise inside her head diminished, and after a month it disappeared completely. Sophie was ecstatic. They told her there was no cure for tinnitus, but now it was gone. It was a miracle.

Sophie decided to go home to her apartment in the city. She turned on her laptop, her smartphone, her TV, her WiFi. Within just a few hours the noise inside her head returned. But this time it was different. It wasn’t just inside her head. It was all around her.

It was children being massacred in their schools, worshippers being shot in their churches and temple, workers being shot at their workplace. It was the insensitivity of her elected officials with respect to passing any common sense gun control legislation, to dealing with environmental issues, to women’s rights, to racism, to health care, to education. She recognized that there could be a cure for the noises inside her head. Inside of all of our heads.

Sophie realized that those who had the power and the means to affect a cure had no interest in doing so. All they focused on was their unenlightened self-interests. They were responsible for her anguish.

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Muhammed Hassan @ Unsplash.

Share Your World — 05/30/2022

Fandango14 Comments

Melanie has given us another round of eclectic Share Your World questions to consider. So let’s consider her questions and craft our answers.

Has anyone ever tried to scam you?

I once get an email from some “girl” in Russia who wanted me to send her money so she could come to America. And I still get occasional emails from what appear to be legitimate companies telling me that I need to log in by clicking on a link provided in the email to update my personal information or to change my password. Fortunately, I have yet to fall for one.

What’s the best thing about parties?

When someone else is hosting them.

Do you listen to people’s advice if you didn’t ask for it?

I don’t listen to people’s advice even when I do ask for it!

Why is it impossible to spell funeral without fun?

For the same reason that if you drop the letter “f” in funeral and switch around the letters “e” and “r,” it spells “unreal.“

How was last week for you?

Not the best, not the worst.

Blogging Insights — Seeking Perfection

Fandango5 Comments

It’s Monday and Dr. Tanya is back with her weekly Blogging Insights prompt. She provides us with a quote about blogging or writing and asks us to express our opinion about said quote.

This week’s quote is from author Margaret Atwood.

“If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”

Don’t we all, in our blog posts, strive for perfection? Don’t we all want what we create and publish on our blogs to be free of flaws or defects? Of course we do. I always hunt for what I hope will be the perfect image to illustrate my words. I always try to find the perfect words to use to express myself.

But while I aim for perfection in my blog posts, it’s not something that I can always achieve. I like to think that I occasionally come close, but in reality, I’m doing the best that I can. Like everyone else, I am only human. I make mistakes. I sometimes use the wrong words or a questionable turn of phrase. Some of my posts have typos in them, even though I diligently proofread them before hitting publish.

If I worried that what I write and post is anything less than perfect, I probably would just stop blogging. Hey, while it may be a bit embarrassing, it’s not the end of the world.

So, bottom line, I agree with the Margaret Atwood quote. It’s better to write something that isn’t perfect than to not write at all.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #171

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 photograph below is from JudaM @ Pixabay.com.

For the visually challenged writer, the photo is of a group of large bronze statues of laughing men. A young boy and girl are walking among the statues.

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 — Banal

Fandango14 Comments
FOWC

It’s May 30, 2022. Welcome 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 “banal.”

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. Show them some love.