Day: January 4, 2023

#WDYS — My Father’s Boots

Fandango7 Comments

“To say that my father was quirky is an understatement,” Joan said.

“How so?” Neil, Joan’s boyfriend, asked.

“Well,” Joan said, “his profession was accountant, and he was a very reserved, buttoned up man. But come the weekend, he fancied himself to be a woodsman.”

“A woodsman?”

“Yes,” Joan said. “Our home was on about five acres and the land behind the house was very wooded. He would spend most of his Saturdays and Sundays tending to the trees and bushes and plants. From sunrise to sunset, actually.”

“Well, he certainly looked more like an accountant than a woodsman to me,” Neil said, chuckling.

“Before he died two years ago, though, he left precise instructions in his will to be cremated,” Joan said. “But then it got weird. He wanted to have his ashes put inside his favorite yardwork boots, top off his ashes with top soil, plant ferns in each boot, and affix his boots to a tree stump. He insisted that there be no gravestone or other marker at the site. Just his boots as planters on a tree stump.”

“So it seems that in death he has chosen to be remembered as a weekend woodsman and not as the buttoned up accountant he was during the workweek,” Neil said. “Good for your dad.”

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Yana Tes @ Unsplash. Also for Fandango’s One Word Prompt (reserved).

Fandango’s Provocative Question #197

Fandango32 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question is one that Rory, the Autistic Composter, conducted a “mini-interview” of me where he asked a bunch of questions that I answered. You can read the interview with my answers here if you want to.

One of the questions he posed, and which I answered, intrigued me, especially given today’s giant political divide, not just in the U.S., but globally. So I thought I’d borrow Rory’s question to me, and ask it of all of you. Ready?

In your interpersonal relationships with acquaintances, friends, and family, are you able to separate political ideologies from the people who hold them? Why or why not?

If you choose to participate, you may respond with a comment or write your own post in response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Brazen

Fandango18 Comments
FOWC

It’s January 4, 2023. 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 “brazen.”

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.