Daily writing prompt

What is your all time favorite automobile?

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Just about anything from Toyota. They’ve made consistently dependable vehicles for a long time. Not necessarily the most stylish, I guess, but that has never mattered to me. They’re stylish enough. Their dependability more than makes up for any lack of pizazz.

Daily writing prompt

How are you creative?

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Another tough one. I don’t feel that I’m all that creative. I think the closest I come is when I’m sitting at the piano and stumble on a tuneful riff using my rudimentary knowledge of chords and chord structure.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, and creativity might be something born of desire and opportunity. But I also believe there’s something magical about it, that real creativity can’t be forced or manufactured. It magically flows. It’s organic. People are born with something extra, with proclivities and inclinations and curiosity in search of expression or a catalyst. Solutions in hand or mind, searching for problems to be solved or beauty to be revealed.

This isn’t to say that we can’t learn to do things, to refine a craft– whether it’s writing or drawing or dribbling a football. In the extreme, I guess I’m imagining that a group of people can’t sit down at a table and just say, “Let’s be creative.” There might be a bit of synergy, something spontaneous, but I’m thinking more along the lines of a Da VInci or Jobs or Chopin.

Daily writing prompt

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

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On first thought, I’m not sure there are many. I’m not sure how much molding and shaping is left to do. There are people who, in the moment, still affect my outlook and evoke emotions. But my essential character, for better or worse, has been shaped already. It seems to be more a question of who were the biggest influences in my life.

I recently mentioned my father. He played a role, as did my mother. Then there are my wife, my siblings, a friend or two, a couple of seminary professors, various musicians that I’ve listened to, one or two athletes, including Bobby Orr.

Politicians either aggravate or resonate, depending on their personalities and platforms. I guess I’ve always gravitated toward the more humble voices, the peacemakers and dreamers, most of whom the world has never been quite ready for.

I make it sound like it’s “put a fork in me” time– I am who I am, and all that blather. But of course I still hold out for a moment or two of revelation, a teaching moment.

Now that I think about it and keep writing here, there are a few people who currently have my attention: Juval Noah Harari, Sam Harris, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. A triumvirate of secularists who, with the possible exception of Harris, speak respectfully of religious faith, but speak more fervently and forcefully about reason and logic and the blatant hypocrisy of supposedly “religious” people.

OK. So there are people I listen to, opinions with which I wrestle, and opportunities for enlightenment and maybe even growth. The reality remains, though, that the cast of influential voices may just keep changing.

Daily writing prompt

Share what you know about the year you were born.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower was President; The Brown v Board of Education decision was handed down; the first mass vaccinations against polio began, in Pittsburgh; the first Burger King opened– in Miami; the first Godzilla movie premiered in Tokyo; “Rock Around the Clock” was released as a B side; the DJIA closed at an all-time high of 382.74, not seen since before the crash of 1929; things were quieting down and heating up in Vietnam; The USS Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT; Texas Instruments introduced its first transistor radio; the U.S. government announced the testing of a hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll, and the U.S. Senate roundly condemned Joseph McCarthy.

I needed a memory refresh courtesy of Wikipedia… the only things about 1954 that I remembered off the top of my head were the Brown v Board… decision, and that Dwight D. Eisenhower was POTUS.

Daily writing prompt

Are you a good judge of character?

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There might still be a bit of spidey sense happening, or at least first impressions made, but I’m retired and don’t usually spend time with anyone other than people I choose to spend time with. Apart from the occasional door-to-door salesperson, I don’t have opportunity or reason to have to size anyone up. Ok, salespeople and political candidates.

In my years as a pastor, I became somewhat astute at being able to tell who the troublemakers were going to be– the occasional backbiter, chronic complainer, saboteur, and passive aggressive type who made life more interesting, i.e aggravating, than it needed to be. But it’s not like I could fire parishioners (technically, I could, but there was a process involving me and members of the congregation, and the infraction would have to be grievous). Most often, we had to learn to coexist, try to be Christ-like.

When it came to our small staffs, deficiencies sometimes emerged. I had to be responsive and caring, and on rare occasions had to have conversations and be part of decisions that were difficult but necessary.

Most parish pastors wear a lot of hats, but I don’t think I would have made a very good personnel director.

Daily writing prompt

When are you most happy?

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Quick answer– when I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, the alarm goes off, and I’m ready to get up and start my day with some cold brew and time to write.

Longer answer– when my wife and I share a laugh, which is more rare than it once was; connecting with the grandkids; when the words come and I write something that turns out the way I was hoping; the anticipation of a visit to or from someone; the joy of sitting at the keyboard and stumbling onto a chord progression that reminds me of a song; a well-struck drive off the tee; a well-composed picture; and news that the world may not be teetering as close to the edge as is often reported.