December 31: Writing Prompt #365-A Brand New You, Effective Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first day of a brand new year. Tomorrow you get to become anyone in the world that you wish. Who are you? If you decide to stay “you” share your rationale.”

It seems to me that the reasons most people would choose to be someone other than themselves are as follows:

1. Money-“I wish I had enough money for…”

2.  Fame-“If only I was famous, I’d have….”

3.  Looks-“I wish I looked like her/him.”

4. Intelligence-“If I was as smart as him/her, I’d be able to…”

5. Creativity-“”I wish I could write/draw/invent like so-n-so…”

I’m sure there are others, but that’s the top five in my mind. For me personally, I don’t wish to be anyone else because I am old enough now and hopefully wise enough to realize that even if I had more money, fame, better looks, more intelligence, or the ability to write better and become a famous author who makes more than enough to take care of my family  (see how that all works together), it’s none of those things that brings long lasting contentment and peace in life.  Many of the rich people I have known still have the same problems as everyone else and may or may not be truly happy. Fame, well we all know from the media, that fame comes with its own vices.  Looks do fade and change as we get older, no matter how much money you spend to try and stop the process. Great intelligence, well, it can be a burden too and more often than not having it comes at the sacrifice of something else, such as common sense or social skills. Creative people are often very passionate and impulsive, which can be wonderful and challenging all at the same time for long term personal relationships.  Now, this is not the case for everyone, but just generalizations based on norms, so don’t get offended if you have one of these 5 things that the rest of us only wish we could have. J

The point of all this end of 2015 rambling….Finding happiness and being content with where you are in life at any given moment is not about money, fame, looks, intelligence, or creativity. You can have one, two, or all of these things and be deliriously happy or immeasurably sad.  Happiness and peace does not come as a direct result of any of these things, but rather as a result of our outlook on life and our way of handling it.  Knowing when to let go, looking for the silver lining in every rainy day, starting your day with prayer and/or meditation, exercising, sleep, focusing on the good things in others instead of what annoys us, responding to a difficult situation by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes first, and so many other little things that we do each day can make or break our endorphin high called happiness.  So, I don’t wish to be anyone else in order to have something they have that I don’t because I am content with my life and know that there’s nothing anyone else has or is that could make me want to switch places with them. I’ll stick with my own small world and small world problems instead of trading them for someone else’s. J

December 30: Writing Prompt #364-I Believe in Magic

You have been transformed into a mystical being who has the ability to do magic. Share your new abilities in detail. How will you use your new skills?

Wisdom-That’s the “magic” ability I would choose, and that’s the only magic I wish for (except maybe for the ability to blink my eyes or snap my fingers and be in another place-like I dream of Genie. That way, I could see my family and friends who live away from me anytime I wanted and for no particular holiday or reason). 

If I could help others solve problems by providing the wisest advice and make my own personal decisions based on the natural wisdom of one who has lived many, many years, I would. To save me hours and days of analyzing and waiting for the solution to come to me, I would be able to move forward in the most appropriate direction right away.  It’s not that I mind waiting. Waiting can be very useful…a good learning experience.  It’s just that I’m getting older, and I can’t stay awake long enough for the answer sometimes! J

December 29: Writing Prompt #363-Brainwave

What’s the best idea you’ve ever had? Regale us with every detail of the idea — the idea itself, where it came to you, and the problem it solved.

I had an idea (still partially written out within my documents somewhere) to seek out a grant to create a series of children’s picture books that would recount and introduce the various Marshallese myths, legends, and cultural traditions.  My thought was to have schools around the Marshall Islands host contests to create the artwork for these books and assist with the content and editing of the final story drafts (to be written in both Marshallese and English).  The idea came to me when I heard about some American schools having “artists in residence.” I would serve as a sort of visiting author in residence and work to teach the children about writing as well as story plot, theme, setting, and other literary elements. My original plan also included an illustrator friend of mine who would also serve as an “artist in residence” at the schools while we were working on the books, teaching the children about various forms of art and how to create illustrations for a book.  There is not so much a problem this idea would solve, but more a purpose for the project. The purpose would be to increase reading and writing literacy in the schools that participate as well as help preserve the myth, legends, and traditions of the Republic of the Marshall Islands through “setting down” their oral history to paper, so to speak.   

December 28: Writing Prompt #362-The New School

You get to redesign school as we know it from the ground up. Will you do away with reading, writing, and arithmetic? What skills and knowledge will your school focus on imparting to young minds?

My school would have all the academic subjects as well as physical education, art, music, cooking (home ec), and so much more.  There would be a requirement for parents to be involved more than I currently see now in most schools. I would like to see a type of parent-teach course take place quarterly where parents are given strategies for working with their children at home and a monthly meeting for dialoging with teachers to help the children succeed in school and at home. One goal of these meetings and courses would be to ensure character traits, manners, and life skills are both taught and practiced at home and at school. This, of course, would require close parent-teacher connections, thus the reason for the courses and monthly meetings with parents and teachers to dialogue about these things. Unfortunately, the things I would like to see in a school would most likely require I start a private or charter school because I know much of this would not work in a traditional or particularly a low income public school where parents cannot always devote the time necessary to their children’s education and where some would feel offended (thinking the school is trying to tell them how to parent), when it is really just about working together to give our children the best start and education they can possibly receive. 

It just seems that parents are less and less educated about how to parent, teachers and caregivers are spending more and more hours with the children due to dual working and single parent families who are just trying to support their families, and children are less respectful, more spoiled, don’t have a strong work ethic, and are less concerned about others and the world around them today than in generations past (so maybe I am speaking like an “old fart” here, but I’m okay with that), and I think it’s something we all need to take some responsibility for and work together to change it.  What do you think? 

December 27: Writing Prompt #361-You’re a Winner

You’ve just won $1 billion dollars in the local lottery. You do not have to pay taxes on your winnings. How will you spend it?

First, my children would each get a large portion placed in their college investment accounts, then I would beef up our retirement investment account and pay off our house, then if there was anything my parents or in-laws needed assistance with, I would take care of that for them, and finally, the rest would be thoughtfully placed with various non-profit, charitable organizations close to our hearts and/or spent in random acts of kindness, such as the historical Saint Nicholas, the Greek Bishop of Myra from Turkey, would participate in.  He is the “true” model of Santa Clause, giving to those secretly (like putting coins in the shoes of those left out for him) on his feast day, December 6th. There are many stories of the ways he assisted others, often through sharing his family’s wealth, such as when he threw three coin purses into the home of a man whose three daughters were soon to be sold into slavery or prostitution because he could not afford a proper dowry for them to marry.  I love that when he saw a need, he simply gave or did whatever he could to help, seemingly without a second thought.  What a wonderful type of person to celebrate during this holiday season, someone I think Jesus would have been proud to include in his own birthday party.  He was also known to defend the true story of Jesus’s birth, especially when others would try to alter or change it in any way.  He was not about himself, but instead what he could do for others.  So, that’s mostly what my billion dollars would be about (I am not completely unselfish….unfortunately), providing for others (those close to me and even those I’ve never met).