Daily writing prompt

What are your favorite brands and why?

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When it comes to reviews of big-ticket items one might be in the market for, there’s no reason not to look online or poll friends and family and get some input. Personally speaking, brand names emerge as important for items like footwear (Hoka, Brooks, Asics, Rockport), and electronics (Apple, LG, Sony, Bose). Vehicle-wise, I’d only ever consider a Toyota, maybe a Honda or Mazda.

On rare occasons, I’ll order something from L.L. Bean or RailRiders as a treat. But most clothing items I have are what look decent and are on sale at Boscov’s, a regional department store boasting a wide selection of brands and styles.

When it comes to food, I prefer Utz ripple chips, 8 O’clock whole bean Italian espresso, Cliff Oatmeal and Raisin energy bars, either Dunkin’ or Starbucks cold brew with a shot, Bob’s Oatmeal, Bush beans, Dietz and Watson or Boar’s Head deli meats, Troeg’s Perpetual IPA, etc.

In the wood shop, I look for Makita, Milwaukee, Bosch, and Dewalt tools, though I’d take a Saw Stop table saw if someone gave it to me. And there’s a whole other level of manufacturers that are beyond reach, cost wise.

Wow, I feel like a walking advertisement, talking breathlessly and subjectively about brand loyalty as if it’s something important. This is a revealing exercise– for a few minutes, we become advocates for and experts on consuming.

Daily writing prompt

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

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My wife, my siblings, a brother-in-law, an uncle, our children and their spouses, a couple of college friends.

In the wider world, there are a few who seem to have, or had their heads screwed on properly and seen enough of life to be sensitive to the human condition– Abraham Lincoln, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, FDR, Maya Angelou, MLK, Jr., Erma Bombeck, Yuval Harari, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, several historians and comedians, and certain other authors and musicians who aren’t coming to mind.

Nobody in the Republican party, except a few defectors.

And, in a category all his own, the Apostle Paul. Not sure he ever existed, but I like what he had to say.

Daily writing prompt

Do you vote in political elections?

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Yes, though I need to improve my record of voting in the more local ones– school board, county commissioners, etc. It seems, anymore, that all elections are important, even pivotal.

Daily writing prompt

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

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Nothing comes to mind immediately, though my memory was jogged when I started searching. One attributed to Martin Luther KIng, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I’ve always found certain pearls of wisdom from Albert Einstein to ring true and perceptive. For example, “Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.” Or “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” Or “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Or “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

Then there’s Will Rogers: “There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

I’ve always liked the one attributed to John Lennon: “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.”

And one from Maya Angelou leaves its mark: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

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Probably still Christmas. It’s easy to tap into the storehouse of memories, even if it doesn’t hold the same magic and mystique it once did. There’s still the music, the family time, the joy of watching the grandkids’ reactions to the small mountain of goodies under the tree. It still feels like a day that’s set apart– different from the rest, somehow.

Daily writing prompt

Have you ever been camping?

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Yes, many times. It started when we were kids. We’d go to Vermont or New Hampshire, use my grandfather’s vintage, old, musty, square, heavy canvas tent. We’d cook on the Coleman stove, swim in a brook, and generally enjoy being outside for extended periods of time.

Then I joined the Boy Scouts and we of course learned the finer points of preparedness and really got into equipment and cooking and all things camping. There were many overnighters and mountain trips to New Hampshire, along with hiking and camping in the Sangre de Cristo range of the southern Rockies at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

We’ve since been with our own kids, but not for a while now. Watkins Glen State Park was a favorite spot.

Daily writing prompt

When do you feel most productive?

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When I can cross something off the To Do list. I have to make lists, anymore.

When I get the yard mowed and cleaned up, finish a woodworking project, spend some time practicing at the piano, get the year-end tax information gathered and delivered, pay a bill in full, bring the checkbook up to date, write what I consider a decent blog post, visit with the grandkids, help my son with his landscaping business, help around the house and cook a nice meal for my wife and I.

Mostly tangible stuff, where the progress or completion is easily marked, or seen– mowing, painting, cleaning, cooking, moving wheelbarrows full of mulch.

Church work was more nebulous, somehow, most days a more difficult milieu in which to assess progress or productivity. Easter always arrived at the end of Lent, of course, so at least we had that cyclical sense of movement toward a culmination and completion. But then the church year just moved on to the next theme. And peoples’ lives and situations and opinions were always evolving. Or stuck.