Author: tallthinman72

Pondering

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Daily writing prompt
Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.
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Dear self,

Congratulations on reaching the century mark! And you thought you might not see 80…

This is a letter from your 71-year-old self, written in early 2025, when seismic changes are the order of the day and many of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Since you’re 100, you obviously survived whatever upheaval ensued, but I have to wonder how things are going for you, and everyone else. Are you cared for, are your needs being met? Does America still exist? Does society still function? How’s the weather?

Look at me. I’m getting ahead of myself. My job is to report and convey current conditions. I’ll refrain from asking more questions and offering advice. Hell, you managed to make it to 100– there’s nothing I can offer on that front!

Anyway, it’s a mixed bag here in 2025– promise and foreboding. That you’ve reached 100 says something, I guess, considering what’s happening now.

Sorry I can’t be more upbeat. I guess it says something hopeful, though– that you’re still hanging in there. I didn’t think I had it in me.

The Pathetic State We’re In

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Trump says he doesn’t pay attention to the stock market’s activity, but that’s a lie. He says there are millions of old, old people still receiving Social Security benefits, but that’s a lie. He lies like he breathes, and with a similar frequency. He can say anything and it doesn’t matter if it’s true.

People stand and applaud as if he’s just issued a marvelous decree, but he’s just getting off on the attention.

In A Name

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Daily writing prompt
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?
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Warren. Etymologically, some sources claim its origins in Normandy, where it was thought to mean “protect or defend”; another source has it of Old English/Celtic origins, meaning “gamekeeper” or “park-keeper.” Others hint at “warden,” or something similar.

All that aside, I believe it’s simply in honor of my uncle, my Dad’s brother, with whom he was pretty close.

Amateurs

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I spent the last week not looking at the news, for the most part, and this was done intentionally. I avoided the breathless hype of post-Oscar ridiculousness, and didn’t come anywhere near video or audio clips of Trump’s State of the Union speech, or whatever people were calling it.

It was nice to take a break from the constant hum of frivolous and ugly news.

It seems the best possible face one could put on what we’re witnessing now is an administration hellbent on cutting waste in government spending. DOGE, eh? Efficiency, you say? Seems more like a cover for a complete gutting of the institutions that have served us well for a long time. No doubt, there may be some glut and questionable spending in a sprawling bureaucracy, but it seems in a rational world there would be a bit more evaluating and number crunching before this wholesale evisceration commenced.

What we’re watching now is the wanton collapse of a system of governance. There has been no scalpel, just a wrecking ball and explosives, and to what end?

Once the destruction is complete, what then?

I bet they know, and I bet most of us won’t like it. It has little to do with efficiency or streamlining or responsiveness to need. Or justice.

They appear not to care if the world burns.

No, thanks

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Daily writing prompt
What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.
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Maybe not in so many words, but something like “What did you accomplish today?” The temptation is to respond with “Not a damn thing,” because I seldom wake up with my first impulse being what the agenda for the day is gonna be, and what I can cross off some list.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy tackling a project now and then, and I don’t consider myself lazy. It’s just that I’m not motivated by nor want a to do list as something offered as a way of “making myself useful.”

I take pride in or at least feel a certain satisfaction in working on something to completion, tackling a project and seeing it through. But I feel little compunction to make a list for the sake of making a list and looking busy.

I guess I don’t need to be accomplishing something every day.

Judgement Call

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Daily writing prompt
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
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I guess I’ve never thought of life writ large in such clearly defined terms. In specific instances, like learning to ride a bike or a language or measuring twice and cutting once, it’s been a matter of persistence and learning from mistakes.

Vocationally, maybe my time in the ministry came about because I somehow needed to end up there, after a few false starts and work that didn’t mean much other than a paycheck. Still, I don’t view that period in my life as either success or failure, or even a calling. It just… was.

And as far as success or failure as a human being, I find such stark categories to be inadequate and offensive, even as, on occasion, someone might be driven to think about a person in those terms.

A Few Things

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Daily writing prompt
What experiences in life helped you grow the most?
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Being raised in a loving family, working in a restaurant during high school, going to college, watching people who worked hard until the job was done, getting married and raising a family, picking up stakes and heading to Seminary, holding pastorates in several congregations over the course of 26 years, traveling to various places, reading, listening to serious people, including comedians, who pay attention to what’s going on in the world, writing in a journal and posting things in here that help me work through and give expression to thoughts and observations and feelings.