PROMPT: Community

Daily writing prompt
What do you do to be involved in the community?

Being a traveler, I’m not even sure what my community would be. So, whatever it is, it’s probably not enough. I go to events (festivals, cultural performances, and such) but typically as an [alien] observer.

PROMPT: Job… for a day

Daily writing prompt
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

“Maker of pies” leaps to mind, but then it occurs to me that any baker who worked at it for just a day would be the worst. It seems to me that any job that is interesting would be one that a person would be terrible at if that person did it for only a day. Conversely, any job one could successfully do for just one day would be tedious and unrewarding.

PROMPT: Favorite Holiday

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

Probably New Years as it’s the only one that there’s some excitement about no matter where one is in the world — even nations that have their own calendar celebrate it as a secondary new year. No use in getting too attached to single-country holidays if you’re a traveler, it just creates melancholy.

Also, because it’s not one of those roaming holidays that’s on a different date each year. Those are too hard to keep track of.

PROMPT: Camping

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever been camping?

Many a time, and I hope to do more. I highly recommend the experience. Nothing like sleeping close to the Earth to realize that there exists no patch of ground on the planet as flat and rock-free as one’s mattress.

PROMPT: Productive

Daily writing prompt
When do you feel most productive?

Uhh… when I’m being most productive, which is to say when I’m producing something in an efficient manner. (Not sure if it’s a trick question.) Obviously, if I’ve felt the need to check my phone, social media, etc. it’s not a highly productive time because I’m not engaged with what I’m producing. Also, I have lots of time when I’m intensely engaged with an activity, but I’m not producing anything, and so that isn’t being productive per se — though it may be highly beneficial and essential to well-being. (Although, my dictionary / thesaurus have definitions of “productive” that equate it with “constructive” which changes everything. Though it also equates “intelligence,” “erudition,” and “wisdom,” which is a highly suspect understanding of wisdom.)

PROMPT: Emojis

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite emojis?

As might be expected of a device that only exists to facilitate lazy, I don’t have impassioned feelings about any emoji, but I do use the “thumbs up” more than all others combined, so I guess it would be fair to say that’s it. “Thumbs up” is very versatile, and if one is being so lazy as to use an emoji for communication, one might as well go all out an add ambiguity to the mix. “Thumbs up” just says, I have some kind of feeling between indifferent and ecstatic about what you’ve just said.

PROMPT: Discuss

Daily writing prompt
What topics do you like to discuss?

Virtually anything but myself. Philosophy, literature, science, economics, public policy, meditation, martial arts, health / well-being, travel, nature, culture, food, the end of the world as we know it, etc.

I do have some blind spots where I could not speak intelligently (e.g. large swathes of history, sports, and pop culture.)

PROMPT: Risk

Daily writing prompt
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?

I had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall joint with a truly astounding population of flies yesterday.

The meal was delectable.

PROMPT: Risk

Daily writing prompt
Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.

I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted taking a risk. I’ve taken some bruises for them on occasion but not felt regret.

I did once try to block a staff strike with an ill-positioned / ill-timed wooden sword. I got a mild concussion that time, but still — I don’t think — regret (but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, maybe it damaged the part of my brain that is capable of regret.)

I’m with Miyamoto Musashi, who wrote: “我事におゐて後悔を/せず” [“I will not regret my deeds.”] in his Dokkôdô [“Way of Walking Alone.”] Of course, he probably suffered his share of concussions as well.

PROMPT: Inaction

Daily writing prompt
Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

The older I get, the more I find regret to be a sucker’s game. I was the me then that I was, wishing the me then was the me now is just a waste of angst. Learn and move. Learn and move. No regret.