Tag: dailyprompt

Time

Daily writing prompt
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
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Easy. Lot’s more time for social media. No! I joke. I’ve worked hard to resist accumulating hour after hour of screen time. But that addiction will carry a lot of people through an endless night.

Sleep is a luxury. It’s a wonderful restorative time. I’m glad we don’t hibernate like a bear. That would be too much life spent out of touch with the spinning globe. It would be sad if a meteor hit the Earth while I was slumbering. Although, what world I know?

If our bodies were equipped to live without sleep, we’d be machines. Even machines need down time for maintenance. Best resist doing anything productive with that extra time. Maintenance of the mind and body will always be needed. So, better spend that extra time in an activity that keeps the whole person together and sane.

By the way, when I wrote: sleep is a luxury. I was channelling John Cooper Clarke[1]. His line was that not getting sleep is a quick preview of death.

[1] https://johncooperclarke.com/

Daily writing prompt
Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?
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Even if I wanted to answer “mountains”, I couldn’t. You see my early years were spent paddling on the Dorset coast. Not that I’ve got anything against breathtaking mountain walks.

I did all the classic summer things a boy might do in the 1960s. Ride donkeys and build sandcastle on Weymouth beach. Tried stop the tide coming in. That never worked. Ice cream and newspaper wrapped fish and chips. Picked-up seaweed and shells in Swanage.

Idyllic. Not always. Dad driving around forever trying to find a parking space in Bournemouth. Stuck in sweltering hot traffic jams around Corfe Castle[1]. Sunburn.

For me, favourite of all was Studland Bay[2]. Wide open spaces and rolling sand dunes. Those were summer moments that flashed by but last forever in the deep corners of my mind.

[1] https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/corfe-castle

[2] https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/studland-bay

Daily writing prompt
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
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It’s one thing to have the fancify idea that just as in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure[1]”, I’d be able to talk to anyone but that’s just not on. I might meet Socrates, or some other great classical mind and ask questions about the meaning of life.

Let’s face it, nice idea but we wouldn’t understand a word we said to each other. There’s also that divide between the analogue and digital world. Technology 21st Century types take for granted would seem like magic stepping back a century. Thus, dude it’s the modern age where I’d focus attention. Set the dial on my time machine.

Let me go for Richard Feynman[2]. I’d ask how do you communicate complex ideas and make them seem not so complex? Then afterwards I’d be stuck with the dilemma that often strikes. Well, I thought I understood what he was saying but now I’m not so sure.

Strange that Bill & Ted went on their adventure the year Feynman passed on. That year, I was figuring out the space between the analogue and digital world.

If Feynman was busy, I’d go for Carl Sagan.

[1] https://youtu.be/oUDIBzecP1I

[2] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1965/feynman/biographical/

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?
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Beware the Ides of March. What nonsense. March is the start of the New Year. Spring has sprung. Meteorological spring starts on 1st March[1].

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris. I wonders where the birdies is.

They say the birds is on the wing. Ain’t that absurd?

I always thought the wing was on the bird.

That little ditty always reminds me of my father-in-law. Spring has got to be the best time of the year. March is its herald. In ancient Rome the traditional New Year celebrations kicked-off in March. That is until Julius Caesar changed the calendar[2]. Look what happened to him.

Above and beyond all this history, my birthday is in March. So, what better month to celebrate.

[1] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/seasons/spring/when-does-spring-start

[2] https://www.britannica.com/science/Julian-calendar

Daily writing prompt
What’s the first impression you want to give people?
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In answer, so much depends on the situation. Clearly, standing on a platform in front to a large audience is different from getting on a train and smiling at fellow passengers.

I almost needn’t say, first impressions are incredibly important. Every textbook echoes that line. For all our advancement and sophistication, judging people in the first couple of minutes we meet them is imbedded. Maybe it’s some ancient human defence mechanism that discriminates between friend and foe. We can be ready to embrace or flee at the drop of a hat.

There’s the core of an answer. First off, in most situations, the impression to give is that of a potential friend. If the people in question are openly threatening, then precisely the opposite comes into play. Call it “caveman” but these human responses are intrinsic.

Daily writing prompt
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
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The power of 1976. At an age when the future was a blank page. Specialness of that 12-months, almost unsurpassed in the analogue world. Years of 45 rpm. Music was brilliantly diverse. It wasn’t only Punk bursting onto the scene. Pink Floyd’s pig flew over a London. The Eagles release Hotel California. Dylan, The Stones, Led Zeppelin and Elton John travelled the world. Presley was around. The Beatles continued to be news. Eric Clapton became persona non grata. The range of acts was astonishing, going from the Bee Gees to Bob Marley. From Donna Summer to Queen. The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Abba.

As if to stress the innocence of the time. Filming starts on Star Wars. If a time machine was ready to use at the press of a button, I’d go back and say: you guys may have something with this strange movie. Of course they would ignore me. Lucky me.

Daily writing prompt
What’s something you believe everyone should know.
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“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” With the greatest respect to the author of these words, Douglas Adams*, this is the number one fact to learn and remember.

Everyone you know. Everyone you will ever know. Everyone who has ever been. Time is there. Now, I don’t want to get into the mathematics or physics. That’s not the point I want to make. What’s you should never forget is that the time we have is finite.

We can’t manufacture it. We can’t store it. We can’t buy it. That said, we do experience time in different ways, but the fact remains. Humans, like you and me, on this Earth, have a finite time to do something. Even doing nothing is to do something.

Why the illusion? That’s why I want to step away from the physics. What we experience of time is not linear. Moments drag. Days speed by. Where’s the sense in that? There is none.

My one point to register is that finite means finite. Whatever happens to time and you, use what you have to the best advantage. Even if that’s a long lunch.

Go see “Time and the Conways” if it plays in a theatre near you. Playwright J. B. Priestley loved experimenting with the effects of time and what we do with it.

*The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Daily writing prompt
What does it mean to be a kid at heart?
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Two ways of going at this question. If you have ever seen the frolics of a kid then the answer is to have boundless energy jumping on and off of anything that gets in the way. Naturally, I am talking about a young goat. A bale of hay becomes a launching mechanism. A tower to observe the world. Two bales of hay become the peaks of two mountains that have to be traversed in great one leap. Playfully a kid hones its skills and masters gyroscopic balance.

Now, I know what you really meant with that question mark. In the world of Winnie-the-Pooh there’s one character that sums up being youthful, energetic, honest, haplessly and hopelessly optimistic. That fictional character is Tigger. To me he’s the most childlike of Pooh’s woodland friends. So, if you want to remain a child at heart think Tigger.

I suppose I could suggest a third approach. I could get all biblical and say: Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. That doesn’t answer the question. Instead it puts a lot of weight on being a “kid at heart”.

Daily writing prompt
You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?
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A million more wishes and a million more to correct the mistakes made with the first million. And finally the abolition of all genies wherever they may be.

That’s what happens when you ask an open question without conditions attached. I accept, my request might be difficult to handle. The 4th wish would have to be – please give me the mental capacity to manage all these wishes. The 5th wish would be – please don’t let me do anything irrecoverably stupid.

I am presuming that the magic genie in question has limitations. So, requests like – please make me a time machine will be processed according to the physics that rules such things. A super potent genie could easily get themselves, and me in huge trouble if a simple error eliminates existence.

Art and Emotion

Daily writing prompt
Who are your favorite artists?
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Nice question. I can’t put one artist above all others. It’s a ridiculous question to ask. Not only that but as the days go by my likes and dislikes shift like sand on a beach. It’s not as if I am wholly inconsistent. It’s that moods and emotions move. Intangible criteria are not fixed in time and space. Top that with constantly learning about works that are either new or previously mysteries to me. The questions are never ending.

For a start, my thoughts instantly go to the visual arts. What image has had such an impact on me that I want to keep going back to it? In going down that road I’ve not considered dance, music or literature. Is one medium more important than all the rest? Of course not.

Although, I cannot forget seeing German artist Katharina Fritsch big blue chicken (cock) in London, it’s her Mouse and Man[1] in Dusseldorf that sticks in my mind. Now that’s potent.

I think David Hockney[2] is oversold but I wish I could paint like him. His brush dances. Forget his portrayal of people it’s the forest, the trees, the country lanes that hit me the most.

Edward Hopper[3] is a master of scenes placing people in situation that are mundane but are far from dull. Transforming the ordinary into the exceptional.

I’d be mad if I didn’t mention Vincent van Gogh[4]. So many great images to choose from. In this case I’ll go to his Irises. I do enough gardening to spend time looking at flowers. Capturing the vibrance of nature so that the life force of the flower cascades off the painting, now that’s magic.

Caspar David Friedrich is on my list. I saw “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” on display at Hamburg’s Kunsthalle. It’s an often-used image. Put aside the corruptions, the original has a message that says to me – there’s always something beyond what you can see.

And that’s just a 10 minute list.

[1] https://www.iainmasterton.com/image/I00006p4TTPTNQtE

[2] https://www.hockney.com/index.php/works/digital/arrival-of-spring-woldgate

[3] https://www.gettyimages.fr/photos/edward-hopper-paintings

[4] https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/irisesindex.html