This too will pass. Maybe…

May 11, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Now and then, one of those loaded questions rears its ugly head and initiates a personal challenge regarding a response. This, is one of those times.


“Write about something that has bothered you this week” landed on my computer screen and it felt like an entire pack of fireworks exploded in my brain. Really people, unless you’re all living under a rock somewhere, how can you not feel somewhat reactive to the insanity currently around us? Aside from those issues that come and go, our world has been in a cataclysmic spin for several years now, from the orchestrated/manufactured pandemic, the endless political bullcrap and, presently, our institutions of higher learning currently having students demonstrating behaviors similar to campus mosh pits.


How can anyone not be bothered, angry, even disgusted? Our country is shamefully turning its back on Israel in favor of militant extremists who are orchestrating chaos at colleges in this country, a majority of individuals who are outside agitators, not matriculated students of these universities. The issue of having the right to protest is completely understood, it is a right of free speech which should never be denied to anyone but not when it is fueled by violence, directed at other nationalities or religions and at law enforcement. By all means, speak up, speak out and do so with some element of intelligence and awareness of just why in hell you are perched on some soapbox of entitlement, just outside an REI tent. Spare us all from the rhetoric of these modern day, entitled, whiners, more concerned with staying hydrated and being served organic and vegan substances while they occupy and vandalize college campuses.


Over on the “left coast”, the governor of California recently perched himself, and his sparkly teeth, on top of the Golden Gate Bridge, citing the beauty of the state while ignoring the decaying San Francisco streets in the distance, many littered with homeless people, drug addicts and increasing crime. Periodically, this heartbreaking collection of deteriorating humanity is cleaned up, relocated, and basically swept under the rug in an attempt to revive the failing tourism of this once beautiful city by the sea.

Here on the “right coast”, we have a former president on trial with an aging, “rode hard, put away wet”, porn star sitting in a witness stand, spewing out comments (when she’s not talking with the dead) geared mainly to bring herself some element of financial subsidy and way, way, more than fifteen minutes of fame. Her testimony in no way fits the overall legal issues for the basis of this trial but she’s being used as a political pawn in an attempt to interfere with upcoming presidential elections. Frankly, I don’t care about which side of the political coin anyone stands. This courtroom circus sideshow demeans all of us as American citizens and as a country. Democrat, Republican or whatever in hell you label yourself as, to be so diabolically focused on supporting those seeking to destroy a candidate and interfering with the campaign and overall election process, demonstrates weakness and desperation, definitely not on doing the absolute best for anyone in our country. For what it’s worth, I’m personally not a fan of any current presidential hopeful, especially the current head of our country who has turned into a maniacal and very sad conductor on a runaway train of leadership.

So, as this writing prompt asked, I responded. Take a long, hard, look around the life which surrounds us and weep, as I do, for the future.

From the Writer’s Workshop…Write about something that bothered you this week.
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Spinning wheels…

May 5, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Wheels. Not just any wheels, four of them. When that magic time of life stepped forward, learner’s permit clutched tightly in my hand, I was ready to fly on the first cylindrical object which would help me to move easily, more like anywhere, over the ground. I even sacrificed an entire summer, taking driver’s ed in a stuffy car crammed with three other hopefuls and a tormented teacher with his hand on dual controls and a rosary hidden somewhere. Or alcohol.

Of course, like many young people, I had already experienced driving, sans the legal paperwork, thanks to a boyfriend with a truck, standard shift at that. Carefully rolling down a few side streets was nothing less than exhilarating, except for a few stalls and gear grinding now and then. Don’t judge. It was a learning process which helped pave the way to an escape plan and the pathway to finally getting that golden ticket, my driver’s license.

After that, the desire to hit any open road was a constant. No amount of pleading directed at my parental units resulted in my being allowed to drive one of their two vehicles. Trust me, I did the patronizing offering to run errands on their behalf and drive old ladies to church on Sundays. I even washed and cleaned both family trucksters, hoping that keys giving me even one hour of driving solo would be bestowed. That never happened unless one parent came along, commandeered music on the car radio and periodically yelled that I was driving too fast or missed a stop sign. Even at the ripe old age of seventeen, the embarrassment of driving through town with one parent riding shotgun and being seen by friends was almost traumatic. Given that, most parental insistent copilot opportunities were given a pass.

All in all, those times were happy in that they opened the door to the freedoms we so longed for during those awkward years of lingering between childhood and getting our feet planted in adulthood. Little did we realize, as we gingerly climbed behind the wheel and headed off to anywhere but where we were, that some of the best years of our lives would be behind us in the rearview mirror.

From Writer’s Workshop… Think back to an important experience in your own past—either happy or traumatic. Pick a single physical detail or action that embodies your feelings about that experience and describe it.
I chose to combine this prompt with an earlier one about “when you learned to drive”. Both, important experiences with a blend of both happy and sometimes traumatic.
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An era of discontent…

March 10, 2024 by Leave a Comment

From one side of the political coin, the complaints expelled are always angry, unhappy, and focused on everything involving current affairs. Misguided and terribly misinformed in many ways but, in that discontentment, is there any possibility that positive progress will ever be achieved?


The anger directed at law enforcement but not the criminals; that same emotion moves on to the legal citizens of our country but not the millions of migrants surging across our borders. Communities everywhere are slowly suffocating as they struggle to provide resources for this human invasion.

People with experience, knowledge and qualifications are marginalized but not those who are employed because of DEI. Of course, LBGTQ+ individuals aren’t treated with the same disdain as straight people. Why not a common ground of respect for all chosen paths in life?

In their almost quid-pro-quo fashion, anger is often directed at white and black people. Unless, of course, they vote for them. According to them, there is no border crisis, no inflation, no high crime, no foreign policy failure and everything is the fault of white supremacists, another political candidate and his followers.

Of course, wherever any of us stand on the political map, we all see things differently. There’s no need to remind anyone on the meaning of opinions. Living in a distorted world, with selective outrage, for a certain faction of our politicos, is a fragmented demonstration of the party they once were.

From the Writer’s Workshop: Write a post in exactly 13 sentences.
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