Month: December 2022

Weekend Writing Prompt — Our Tenet

Fandango14 Comments

Let me dispel your anxieties, Ruby
A tenet in our culture is freedom to choose
This is new to you
And may seem unexpectedly broadminded
But since our advent here
The experienced among us
Are comfortable this way
With no constraints
Don’t get in a tizzy
Just remove your clothing
Feel free to frolic
Like the rest of us naturists

(Exactly 60 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the prompt is “tenet” in exactly 60 words.

Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One Word Challenge (dispel/tizzy), My Vivid Blog (ruby/unexpectedly), The Daily Spur (culture/experienced), Ragtag Daily Prompt (new/just), Word of the Day Challenge (broad/frolic,), and Your Daily Word Prompt (advent/constraint).

SoCS — School Girl Crush

Fandango8 Comments

Speaking on the phone to her BFF, Elaine excitedly said, “I met a new guy. He’s in my homeroom and he’s so dreamy. He saw me gazing at him and he smiled back at me and I knew. I just instantly knew.”

“You knew? What did you know?” Megan asked her best friend.

“I knew that he and I are going to be girlfriend-boyfriend, silly,” Elaine said.

“How did you know that?” Megan asked. “Did you talk with him? Does he even know your name?”

“No, not yet,” Elaine admitted, “but I saw how he smiled at me when he saw me staring at him.”

“Yeah, Elaine, it was probably a nervous smile,” Megan said. “You probably freaked him out.”

“No, you’re wrong, Megan,” Elaine said. “You’re just jealous that I met the new boy before you did.”

“I’m not jealous, Elaine. But you haven’t even talked with him yet, so how can you be so sure he’s going to want to be your new boyfriend?”

“I knew you’d react this way, Megan,” Elaine said. “Why do you always have to be such a bitch? You are no longer my best friend. I hate you!” Elaine abruptly ended the call.

Megan sighed. What else is new? she thought.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where the challenge is to use the words “new” and/or “knew.”

FOWC with Fandango — Tizzy

Fandango18 Comments
FOWC

It’s December 31, 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 “tizzy.”

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.

WDP — Political Views

Fandango26 Comments

How have your political views changed over time?

I’ve always, ever since I was old enough to have formed political views, thought of myself as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. And in both cases, I would have said my positions were moderate. Neither far left on the social side, nor far right on the fiscal side.

But my political views have, over the past two decades, shifted more to the left. It started with the 2000 presidential election when the conservative Supreme Court handed the presidency to the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, even though the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, had half a million more votes nationwide, than did George W. Bush.

But it was when the totally unqualified egomaniac, Donald Trump “won” the presidential election in 2016, even though the highly qualified Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, received three million more votes nationwide than did Trump, that I moved even further to the left.

And when Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, but claimed the election was stolen and, to this day, has yet to concede, and then orchestrated an insurrection to attempt to stay in office and to prevent Joe Biden from being officially declared the winner, that is when I moved very far to the left and lost my faith in politics in America.

So my political views in the past two decades have changed from one who believed in and supported the political process in America, to one who has lost all hope in that process.

Throwback Thursday Inspiration — Getting Started

Fandango19 Comments

I’m actually going to combine Jim’s Adams’ Thursday Inspiration prompt this week this week with Maggie and Lauren’s Throwback Thursday prompt. Jim has given us the prompt word begin and the image of a January 2023 calendar page. He’s asking us to focus on new beginnings, Maggie wants us to reflect upon this past year.

Looking back at 2022, I think it’s been a mixed bag. My honest appraisal of the year is that there wasn’t a whole lot to love, but it wasn’t all bad. I personally experienced some highs and some lows, but on balance, 2022 wasn’t much better than 2021, but it wasn’t much worse, either.

As we begin the new year, I’m hoping that by this time next year I’ll be able look back at 2023 and give it an unequivocal thumbs up. But I’m not optimistic. Without a seismic shift in the current geopolitical and societal trajectories, I’m expecting to feel about 2023 next December as I feel about 2022 this December: not a great year, but not a horrid year.

And with that, I leave you with this as we begin the new year.