June 25: Writing Prompt #176-21st Century Citizen

Do you belong in this day and age? Do you feel comfortable being a citizen of the 21st-century? If you do, explain why — and if you don’t, when in human history would you rather be?

If you had asked me this question when I was a little girl, I would have told you that I didn’t feel comfortable in my day and age, and that I would rather live in the Pioneer Days of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  This was, in part, because I was engrossed in her books and the Little House on the Prairie TV series with Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. I was also attracted to how everything was a new discovery and life seemed much simpler to me. It was all about school, family, and the outdoors. 

Now, that I am older, I think about living in that time and realize how difficult life was for the pioneers. For me today, doing the laundry is very simple. I put a load in the washer, add detergent, and turn it on.  Then, I take it out of the washer, throw it in the dryer, and again, turn it on.  The hardest part is the last one where I have to fold and put away each item, and that’s only hard because I am too lazy to take the time to do it, so the laundry sits in a pile in the extra bedroom or worse, on my bedroom floor until I make myself go and take care of this mundane task.  Laundry was much more of a challenge during the days of the Wilder family.  Scrubbing each item of clothing on a wash board in the wash tub, then hanging to dry on a clothes line is much more time consuming and much less sanitary and efficient than today’s electronic appliances for washing and drying clothes.  Laundry was not the only difficult and necessary task of the day. Cooking was always from scratch. Tonight, we had frozen pizzas from a box and vegetable kabobs that were already cut up for me and put on kabob sticks inside Styrofoam and plastic wrap at the grocery store down the street.  Now, this is not normal dinner fare for us, but I suggested to my husband that we do something simple so he didn’t have to cook.  What did they do for a simple meal in pioneer days?  I’m not sure, but it still would have taken much more time and energy than our processed, frozen “TV Dinner” meal did tonight. 

Bottom line, I am NOW clearly feeling more comfortable in my day and age, but I think that’s because it is my generation. I AM a citizen of the 21^st century. It’s all I know, except for what I read in books, which is nothing like my day-to-day reality.  At 40, I’ve gotten used to living this life in this century, and it’s important for me to be comfortable with it and know it because it’s now becoming my kids’ generation, and I want to know what’s happening in their lives, what’s new and popular, what they have to face and understand to navigate their world successfully, and if I was living my life like Laura Ingalls Wilder, I would be so out of touch with  2 of the most important pieces of my life and my heart, my boys.   

June 24: Writing Prompt #175-Morality Play

Where do your morals come from — your family? Your faith? Your philosophical worldview? How do you deal with those who don’t share them, or derive them from a different source?

My morals come from my family, my faith, and my worldview shaped by my experiences both within and outside of my family and faith. 

With those who don’t share my morals, I try to understand where they are coming from and why they have the morals (or don’t have morals) that they choose to live by.  Our experiences shape who we are and sometimes we don’t even know why we think certain ways until someone poses that question to us.  Others just don’t have the self-esteem, knowledge, guidance, or general purpose in life to care how they live and how it affects others.  Some do just what their parents or guardians or the world they were orphaned in taught them to do.  They couldn’t have chosen anything different if they wanted to because who would have shown them better? For those who don’t have morals, who chose to commit horrible atrocities on others, I pray for them. I pray that someone or something will come into their lives and show them a different way and love them back to health.  For those who have morals I don’t share, I simply try to show them the same love I would show those who grew up with and have the same faith I do.  It’s not my place to judge what or how they believe, but only to show them kindness and love. 

For those who have similar morals, but derive them from a different source, I try to learn from them and relate to them through my own beliefs.  A good person is a good person, and in my book, we all come from one maker anyway. He may be called by a different name in a different culture; some may even worship Him very differently, but He is still the same maker to me.   And once again, my job is to simply love them the same I would anyone else.  I wouldn’t want the job of being their judge. I’m happy to be tasked with simply making my best effort to treat others the same way I want to be treated.   

June 23: Writing Prompt #174-Island of Misfit Posts

We all have something we’d like to write about, but that doesn’t really “fit” our blog. Write it anyway.

I lost my granddaddy before the end of my first year residing on Kwajalein.  He was also the first grandparent I lost to death when I was a naïve and immature 22 years old.  I was taking a creative writing class with the University of Maryland satellite campus there on the base, and we had to write in a journal weekly.  Looking back through it, I recognize what an impact his life and death had on me. And one pretty surreal experience in particular has stuck with me since that time. This is the exact entry I wrote back then about that moment in time.

September 13, 1997

I had a dream the night my grandfather died. I was sleeping peacefully and in my sleep I heard the wrestling of paper.  The sound continued and became louder and louder until finally, I awoke. My eyes focused toward the sound and saw a large Bible open on the floor beside my bed, and the pages were flipping rapidly, without human hands there to move them. Without thinking about it or feeling any fear, I knew it was granddaddy, turning those pages trying to wake me up.  I said, “Granddaddy,” and as soon as I said that, I was sitting up in the bed, and I felt an overwhelming presence in the room. It was so strong that I could not move, but it was not uncomfortable, just strong. I spoke again, saying, “Granddaddy, I love you,” and then, “Goodbye, Granddaddy,” and his presence was gone.  I awoke that morning to mom telling me with tears that “Daddy has gone to be with the Lord.” 

P.S. (June 23, 2015) I always felt like that really was my granddaddy, after his death in the middle of the night, stopping to let me know how much he loved us all, on his way to be with His maker!  Thank you, Granddaddy, for just being you! Couldn’t have asked for a better grandparent! You were wholeheartedly one of a kind and the gentlest soul I ever know.  Sending love and hugs to you….

June 22: Writing Prompt #173-No, Thank You

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

There are so many words I’d like to do this with, but the one that comes most strongly to mind right now is HATE.  It’s so overused and for everything from hating an airline to hating an entire group of people.  Just scrolling Facebook, I saw it used multiple times for little things and big things alike.  I know sometimes we all need to vent, but is it helpful to use this word over and over again to express our disgust with a situation, idea, etc...? “I hate it” really isn’t saying much. Describe what it is that you are feeling and why. Hate is such a broad word.  Be specific. I challenge all of us to pay attention to how much we hear or use this word ourselves, then make a concerted effort to come up with other ways to describe how we feel without using that word.  You’d be surprised how hard it can be to eliminate just one word for your vocabulary. 

June 21: Writing Prompt #172-Hahaha

Tell us a joke! Knock-knock joke, long story with an unexpected punchline, great zinger — all jokes are welcome!

This will be quick and easy since I am not much of a joke teller. I tend to screw up the punchline, putting it in the wrong place. But, here’s one of my children’s favorites: It’s a Knock-Knock joke.

Knock, Knock.

Who’s there?

Smell mop.

Smell mop who?

Get it? If not, say it out loud again or get a partner to take the other part, and it will quickly become obvious. 

That’s all I got.   Hope you enjoyed it! J