Month: August 2017

Set It To Music

Fandango8 Comments

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“This is crazy,” Jerry said. “Why do we need to memorize all these dates? Isn’t understanding what took place more important than when they happened?”

“Knowing when events occurred helps you build a timeline for the events, and that also enables you to gain insights into what led up to those events,” his tutor answered. “It helps you put history into perspective.”

“There’s got to be a better way than to memorize all these stupid dates,” Jerry lamented.

“Did you ever hear the song The Battle of New Orleans?” The tutor asked.

“No,” Jerry answered.

“It came out way before you were born,” she said, “but that song enabled me to easily remember when that battle took place and who fought it.” She took out her iPhone, opened up her music app, and started playing that song. They both listened to the lyrics.

In 1814 we took a little trip,
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin’
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they begin to runnin’
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

Before the song ended, an excited Jerry shouted, “Now that’s a great way to learn history.”

“Hmm, it is indeed,” his tutor said.

That night, when her son came home for dinner, she sat him down and said, “Lin-Manuel, I have a great idea about how to help children learn about history.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “memorize.”

Genocide

Fandango34 Comments

Image“Wow,” Sandra exclaimed. “This was built before our country was even discovered.”

“Yes it was,” answered Sandra’s mother. “A lot of structures in England were built long before America was discovered. But did you know that America existed before it was discovered by Europeans?”

“But how can something exist before it’s been discovered?” Sandra asked.

“That’s an excellent question,” Sandra’s mother said. “The land existed and people who we now call ‘Native Americans’ lived there. But the Europeans thought they were uncivilized and primitive, so they didn’t really count, and then the white descendants of the Europeans nearly wiped them out.”

(100 words)

Written for the Friday Fictioneers prompt by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.

Just Say the Word

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“You can’t say it, can you?”

“Say what?” he asked, innocently.

“The word,” she said. “The word that describes how you claim to feel about me.” Her eyes started to well up with tears.

“Of course I can say it,” he said. “I’m totally enamored with you.”

“Enamored?”

“Yes, I’m completely smitten.”

“Seriously? You’re smitten?”

“Yes. I idolize you. I adore you. I worship you. You are my everything.”

More tears rolled down her cheeks. “Then why can’t you just say it?”

He was confused. “What more do you need me to say?” he asked.

She shook her head back and forth. “I need to hear you tell me that you love me.”

He chuckled. “Love is just another four letter word.”

“If you can’t say the word ‘love’ to me, then I have a seven letter word for you,” she said.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Goodbye.”

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “enamored.”

One-Liner Wednesday — Remain Silent

Fandango17 Comments

ImageThe quote, “Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt” is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

But some say that Mark Twain said something very similar: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”

Of course, it’s possible that neither Lincoln nor Twain said either one of these. One site, Brainy Quotes, attributes the alleged Lincoln quote to “Unknown.”

But where these similar quotes originated is not the point I wish to make here. I would hope that the current President of the United States would heed either of these warnings. Because with every word he utters and every word he tweets, he is removing all doubt to the world what a fool he is.

Written for this week’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.

100 Word Wednesday — The Encore

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The lead singer came back onto the stage and held up both of his hands to quiet the excited audience down after a few minutes of wild cheering and calls for an encore.

He kept both hands up until it became silent enough in the large arena that you could hear that proverbial pin drop.

The silence lasted for around thirty seconds before he grabbed the neck of his guitar with his left hand and brought his right hand down to the body and across the strings as he began the riff to the song everyone had been waiting for.

Written for this week’s 100 Word Wednesday challenge from Bikurgurl.

Photo credit: Don Naman Photography 2017

My Life of Rhyme

Fandango13 Comments

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I wake up
I wash up
I brew a cup

I log on
I blog on
I work on

I eat
I meet
I greet

I stare
I share
I care

I eat some more
I do a chore
I’m such a bore

I read some blogs
I drop some logs
I fix some clogs

I earn my pay
I end my day
I hit the hay

I am not a fan of poetry.

This post is a poem.

Or my version of poem.

It has no set meter.

But it has rhyme.

Albeit forced at times.

And it has stanzas.

So it is a poem.

Or not.

I don’t know.

I am not a fan of poetry.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “rhyme.”

FFfAW — Eye of the Beholder

Fandango30 Comments

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The two friends were heading toward Columbus Circle. As they walked by one of the buildings along the busy boulevard, Susan suddenly stopped short. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “What the hell is that?”

Craig followed her gaze to see what it was that she was looking at. He stared at the sculpture for a few minutes before declaring, “It’s a work of art.”

“It’s monstrous,” Susan said in disgust. “How can you call that thing ‘art’? It makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

“The purpose of art is to communicate ideas and to generate strong emotions. It’s intended to elicit a response, which is exactly what it did with you.”

“It’s totally gross,” Susan said.

“You don’t have to like the artist’s work to appreciate the art.”

“Isn’t there enough violence without creating ‘art’ to celebrate it? I’m going home.” Susan turned around and started walking away.

Craig called out, “It generated strong emotions. That makes it art!”

(160 words)

Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers prompt from Priceless Joy. Photo credit: Jade M. Wong

You Are What You Eat

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“Why do I always seem to get involved with the wrong types of guys?” Lizzie asked, bending over slightly, her head resting on her palms, her eyes moist with tears.

“The Law of Magnetic Attraction,” Dr. Singer responded, “states that we are like magnets. We attract into our lives everything that corresponds with our dominant thoughts and emotions.”

Lizzie looked up at her therapist. “So you’re saying it’s my fault that every man I fall for turns out to be a piece of shit?”

“I’m not assigning blame, Lizzie. I’m just pointing out, to put it more colloquially, you are what you eat.”

“Right. And I eat shit, huh?”

Dr. Singer took off her glasses and leaned in toward Lizzie. “What we think about most of the time, how we think about things, and the emotions we experience determine the people that we tend to attract into our lives.”

“Oh jeez,” exclaimed Lizzie. “What are you going to tell me next? That I think, therefore I am?”

“No,” Dr. Singer said. “I’m going to remind you that the people in our lives are reflections of your attitude and emotions. They are mirrors of your inner world and of your psychological posture. Look in the mirror, Lizzie. Reflect on who you are. If you’re unhappy with the kinds of people you attract, you need to change how you think, feel, and act so that you can attract different kinds of people.”

“And how, exactly, am I supposed to do that?” Lizzie asked.

Dr. Singer stood up. “Our hour is over, Lizzie. I’ll see you again next week.”

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “magnetic.”

The Pretender

Fandango3 Comments

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This quote by author Kurt Vonnegut resonated with me. Don’t we all, at times, pretend to be someone we aren’t but perhaps would rather be?

The quote struck a chord not so much with respect to my real life, but when it comes to my blog.

In real life I am who I am, for better or worse. And I’m at the age where, with more than six decades behind me, I’m not likely to be changing who I am. I guess you might say that I’m set in my ways.

But on my blog I am not limited by the physical properties of the real world. I’m not just some random senior citizen, an old fogie with internet access who has time on his hands and who rants and raves to anyone and to no one.

On my blog I can be whoever I want to be — or at least I can pretend to be whoever I want to be. 

When I write my posts, whether they are political and societal rants, casual observations, or short works of fiction, my words transcend physical and environmental characteristics. My age, gender, background, where I live, what I do, and my life situation are not important. It’s what I write that defines who I am to those who take the time to read my posts.

That doesn’t mean I’m living a lie or that it’s all just an act. I may be making up stories out of my imagination when I write my flash fiction pieces, but the opinions I express in my non-fiction posts are my own. And they are deeply held and voiced with conviction.

Yet I’m not sure I would share them the same way or to the same extent in the real world as I do here on my blog. Because, in the real world, people see me for what I am — or for what, to them, I appear to be.

Thus, their perceptions of what I have to say are colored. They may dismiss my rantings and the expression of my opinions and perspectives as those of some old coot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

And so, in the real world, I tend to keep my mouth shut.

But here on my blog I can be a writer of short stories. I can be a pundit, a pedant, a journalist, an editor. I can act as if I know what I’m talking about. I can pretend to be witty and engaging. I can pretend that others are interested in what I have to say about whatever is going on in the world around us; that my opinions matter to anyone other than to me and that they are worth sharing.

Most important, I can pretend to be the person I’ve always wanted to be.

And if, as Vonnegut says, we are what we pretend to be, that works for me.