body changes

For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompts.

I am having a hard time choosing which of John’s six prompts to go with today.

I could go with any one other than #5, which is to write an opinion post called “Fruitcake is unfairly maligned,” but I couldn’t choose that topic because I hate fruitcake and think it can’t be maligned enough.

I’ve moved around a lot, so I could go with #3 about moving from one place to another, but I’ve already posted about that a number of times before on my blog.

Or I could choose #6 about how my body has changed as I’ve gotten older, but my poor, old, aching back hurts so much these days that writing about that would be too depressing.

And then there is prompt #1, to write a post based on the word “gym,” but to be honest with you, I havent been to the gym for years and I feel kind of guilty about that.

That leaves me with #2, write a post in exactly 10 sentences and #4, which asks if I refuse to watch a filmmaker’s or actor’s movies, or buy someone’s music or books, because of their personal bad behavior?

Well, I’ve already written 6 sentences before this one, which means if I write three more after this one, I’ll satisfy the 10-sentence prompt, and if I answer #4 about whether I can separate the person from his or her work, then I will have written about two of the six prompts, right?

So, my answer to #4 is that even though my wife refuses to watch a Woody Allen movie, anything with Kevin Spacey appearing in it, or any film directed by Roman Polanski, I, on the other hand, can separate the artist from the art and continue to watch a film, read a book, or listen to a song by an actor, an author, or a musician, respectively, despite what despicable behavior they exhibited in real life.

Except for Pee Wee Herman, a children’s television and movie star, who was nicked for masturbating in public in a movie theater.

That’s a bridge too far even for me.