Tag Archives: dailyprompt

PROMPT: Gratitude

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Daily writing prompt
How do you express your gratitude?
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I have a daily practice of FEELING gratitude for this awesome life and all that contributes to said awesomeness. I don’t place much emphasis on EXPRESSING emotion beyond the usual social protocols and niceties. Quite frankly, I think expression of gratitude is overrated. It binds the process up with ego and desire for reciprocity, and the next thing you know you’ve lost all touch with the experience of gratitude and the powerful influence it has on fostering a positive outlook.

Furthermore, when one emphasizes expression, one tends to develop a blind-spot, thinking that the only entities worthy of consideration of gratefulness are other intelligent beings (or constructs attributed intelligence — e.g. gods.) I begin (though do not end) my practice of gratitude with my body (/ mind) and its systems. I’ve been told many people have trouble fostering gratitude when they focus on their body, but I don’t think one really understands gratitude if one can’t feel deep gratitude for one’s body and mind (literal warts and all.) For the body is the means by which one experiences everything, and one can only be unconditionally grateful for it. [For those who have trouble being grateful for body and mind, I’d recommend the book, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” by Jean-Dominique Bauby. It’s a short read because it was dictated using eye-blinks by a man who developed “Locked-in Syndrome,” a condition that left its author only with conscious control of an eyelid.]

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PROMPT: Future

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What are you most worried about for the future?
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As far as humanity’s future goes, nothing worries me. This despite the fact that I believe the odds are good that we’ll destroy the species before spreading to other planetary bodies. (Spreading so as to make humanity more robust in the face of extinction.) Even achieving colonization of other planetary bodies probably cannot be done by humanity as we know it but will require moving beyond biology — i.e. being able to carry consciousness into a sturdier vehicle. Everything is impermanent. We are no different.

Yes, in time, AI and robotics may be able to do every productive task more effectively than humans, but I’m confident I’ll outrun that. Besides if they can, they deserve to do so. I don’t want to be one of those participation trophy speciesists who believe we should be granted a victory even if we’re outperformed — all while whining about unfair advantage.

As for my personal future, the only thing that worries me is losing the ability to go out on my terms — i.e. losing command of mind and / or body with my body still being able to function enough to remain “alive.” Everything that lives will certainly die, so fearing death seems futile.

PROMPT: Teachers

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What makes a teacher great?

If a student (or students) voluntarily and enthusiastically come to learn from an individual, that individual is a great teacher.

The emphasis is on “to learn” because some people confuse great charisma with great pedagogy, but such people go to the charismatic person to take comfort from being in that person’s presence, not to learn — despite whatever truisms or clever-sounding parallel grammatical structures the charismatic individual might spout.

So, if one would go to an individual seeking knowledge, knowing the experience will be challenging and not merely comforting, one has found a great teacher.

PROMPT: Surgery

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Have you ever had surgery? What for?
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Tonsillectomy; age 4. A couple others that I’m not sure constitute surgery (e.g. wisdom-teeth removal.)

PROMPT: Daily Habits

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What are your daily habits?
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The only optional activities I do every day are: reading, writing poetry, overhead hanging, and handstanding.

[Obviously, there are non-optional transport, hygienic, homeostatic, and metabolic maintenance activities: e.g. the breathing, peeing, pooping, walking, eating, toothbrushing, washing, etc.]

PROMPT: Sustainable Lifestyle

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Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
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I don’t use powered transport for travel under 2 or 3 miles (i.e. 4km) [unless dictates require I not show up as a sweaty mess.] I do all my usual errands (e.g. grocer, barber, etc.) on foot. I’m assuming the “sustainable” is being used in the environmental sense.

PROMPT: Delicious

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What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?
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I couldn’t possibly say, I’ve had so many great foods from all over the world, and my palate is not so refined as to tell great from “the best in the world.” (And I kind of doubt anyone else’s is either.) That said NIC’s “Madagascar Chocolate” ice cream is far-and-away the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever had, and I would further say possibly the best ice cream and one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

PROMPT: Outfit

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If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
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T-shirt and sweatpants. Of course, I’d never be able to move back to temperate climes and would have to stay in the tropics. And if it was really one outfit (vs. many copies of the same outfit) I would probably end up going nude after a year-and-a-half or so when said outfit disintegrated into its component threads. So, I’d then have to join a religion, because holy men seem to be the only ones allowed to go buck naked out in the streets without consequence. This is starting to entail more than superficial change.

(Of course, I now notice that the prompt doesn’t say one would exclusively wear this one outfit. But then I think the question becomes meaningless because I think most people — except perhaps a few “fashion influencers” and “celebrities” (quote marks are intentional) — do wear a given outfit over and over [I know I do.])

Point is: it has to be comfortable, not restrict my range of motion, not result in me being a sweaty mess all the time, and allow me to blend.

PROMPT: Self-Care

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How do you practice self-care?
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1.) Move my body often and with vigor. 2.) Eat my veggies. 3.) Rest as though it’s an essential part of the process of living (i.e. not as though it’s goofing off between “doing stuff.”) 4.) Drop anything without value, making personal development as much a process of stripping away as it is of adding to.

PROMPT: Historical Figure

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Who is your favorite historical figure?
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Oh, there are so many: Voltaire, Kusunoki Masashige, Drukpa Kunley, Diogenes (the Cynic,) and Socrates top the list.