expression

WDP — Write-On

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Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy most about writing?
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I have strong opinions, perspectives, and views and I enjoy expressing them. However, back in the day, I used to work for very conservative companies and openly sharing my opinions, perspectives, and views on such topics as politics and religion would not have been a good idea. So other than with my family and a select group of sympathetic friends, I kept my potentially more controversial thoughts and feelings bottled up.

Then someone who knew that I enjoyed writing for my own amusement suggested that I start a blog where I could freely express myself. He also suggested that I blog anonymously so that I wouldn’t risk receiving any blowback should any of the people I worked with or for stumble upon my blog.

I started my first blog back in 2005 and it was liberating. I discovered that I could express my thoughts better in writing on my blog than I could verbally in conversations. This was primarily because I could write down what I wanted to discuss, review it, edit it, and fine tune it so that it very accurately and articulately expressed my thoughts, opinions, and persectives.

Aside from being able to more effectively articulate my thoughts and opinions in writing, I was also able to discuss topics on my blog that I felt constrained discussing with others outside of my family and close friends. I was talking to the world — or at least to the few strangers who stumbled across my blog.

The other thing that I enjoy about writing is that I believe it is helping me keep my mind sharp by exercising my brain. And at my age, I need all the help I can get. Whether it’s researching a particular topic before writing a post about it or stretching my imagination when I concoct a flash fiction post, I can almost feel those neurons firing a d synapses crackling inside my brain as I’m writing.

Finally, I simply enjoy writing. And even if it’s just a few blog posts a day, writing and blogging gives me, a retiree, something to do aside from, as my wife puts it, always being underfoot.

AI image from ideogram.ai.

3-2-1 Quote Me! — Expression

Fandango15 Comments

864b976e-4b5c-4be4-a580-0fda871b62bc.pngTeresa, The Haunted Wordsmith, tagged me in Rory’s game of quotes. The rules are:

  1. Thank the blogger who tagged you: Thank you Teresa.
  2. Post two quotes for the dedicated topic of the day: Expression
  3. Tag three other bloggers to take part in “3-2-1 Quote Me!”

So here we go:

“Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country, and this world.”

Author Sharon Salzberg

“Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature, and to suppress truth.”

Chinese writer, human rights activist, and philosopher Liu Xiaobo

And now for my three tags:

Participation is optional, but I hope you’ll join in.

JusJoJan — Cathartic

Fandango6 Comments

1e632a9f-35bc-4771-b41d-820263a37144For today’s Just Jot It January prompt from Linda G. Hill, the word “cathartic” was suggested by The Enthralling Journey.

“Cathartic” is defined as “providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis.” And catharsis is defined as “the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.”

Now that we have our definitions out of the way, for me, blogging is cathartic. In these very troubling times — thank you Donald Trump and all of your lily-livered Republican congressional sycophants — blogging has kept me sane. The act of writing posts for my blog does, indeed, relieve strong emotional tensions. By giving me a vehicle to express my anger, frustration, and antipathy, I am experiencing a critical and much-needed psychological release.

I can also use the half a dozen or so daily, one-word prompts to challenge me to knit together random words into a cohesive piece of flash fiction, thereby diverting my attention from the chaos and lunacy of Donald Trump and his associates and distracting me, albeit only temporarily, from all of the terrible, horrible, malevolent, malicious, dangerous, moronic, insane, and damaging things he says and does every goddam day.

Phew, it felt really good to write that. Very cathartic, in fact.

#writephoto — The Path Less Traveled

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EE7AB1A2-EA5A-45B4-8947-58A00EDFBA7E“Are you unhappy in our relationship?” Dora asked Dwayne.

Dwayne looked at his fiancé. “Why would you ask me that?”

“I see you sitting there staring off into space and I recognize the expression on your face,” Dora said.

“Oh really?” Dwayne responded. “And what expression is it that I have on my face?”

“You have a look of wanderlust in your eyes,” Dora said. “What are you thinking about? Because you’re clearly not here with me in the moment.”

“I was remembering when I was a kid,” Dwayne started to explain. “My parents were very strict, always telling me to stay on the ‘straight and narrow.’ I never really understood at the time what that expression meant. But then one day I was in the woods behind our house and I came upon a trail deep in the forest. It was very straight and very narrow. And like a light bulb being turned on inside my brain, I finally understood what they were telling me.”

“So why were you thinking about that?” Cora asked. “It seems kinda random.”

“Actually, I was thinking about us,” Dwayne said. “My parents would have considered my being engaged to you to be far from the straight and narrow.”

“And does what your parents would have thought of me bother you that much?” Dora asked. “Because if it does, then maybe they were right. Maybe you were meant to stay on the straight and narrow and not to be with me.” Dora was unsuccessful in preventing the tears from welling up in her eyes.

“Quite to the contrary, Dora.” Dwayne reached out and grabbed her hand and planted a kiss on her wet cheek. “I was meant to take the path less traveled and you are the perfect person to accompany me on that journey.”

Written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt and for the Word of the Day Challenge (wanderlust) and for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (expression).

FOWC with Fandango — Expression

Fandango33 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 2, 2018 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “expression.”

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. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

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

#100WW — Duck Face

Fandango4 Comments

C5A749DA-2433-4ACD-9FC1-D3B5553D58FDLooking at the map, David was trying to figure out how to get to the museum. “I think it’s just a few blocks from here,” he said to his wife. Not hearing a response, he turned around and saw that she was taking yet another selfie, with that ridiculous duck face expression.

“How many of those stupid, pouty selfies are you going to take on this trip?” David asked her.

“I want all of my Facebook friends to see how much fun we’re having,” she said.

David sighed. “Then you should try aiming the camera at something other than yourself.”

(100 words)

Written for today’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt from Bikurgurl. Image credit: Bikurgurl.