Daily writing prompt

Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.

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Often enough, life has been about transitions, moving on, completion and next steps. That being said, the first phase or period that comes to mind, regarding this prompt, was the college experience– those years post-high school when I was on my own, to a certain extent. However, I don’t remember feeling like it was all that difficult to say goodbye to it, other than the sadness of leaving behind friends, which is liable to happen in different settings throughout life.

I occasionally return to those years as if they were a benchmark of sorts, or highpoint. I have come to see them, in some ways, as the best years of my life, with that unique mix of a certain autonomy and responsibility, and of course the daily experience of living in a college dorm with a bunch of people my age who had yet to grow into their more mature selves. Fifty-plus years on, those were the days…

What has come since has been a mix of blissful and challenging, often wondrous in its own right. But that college experience will always stand alone, as much a monument to pre-adulthood as it was preparation for the workaday world.

Daily writing prompt

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?

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In a generic sort of way, I’d like to be anybody who can let things roll off of him, who can let things go, who isn’t waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’d like to be someone who could look at all the craziness and ugliness in the world and still be kind and hopeful, still smile and carry on with a lightness in my step. I’d like to be stronger and funnier, and more resilient, with a bit more devil-may-care, I guess.

So, maybe Bill Murray.

Daily writing prompt

Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

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A few years ago, my wife and I re-did the upstairs bathroom– a small space but a nice size to tackle when you’re doing something for the first time. We installed a new floor, painted the walls and woodwork, modified pieces of the plumbing and added a new toilet, new outlet and switches, molding, re-calked around the sink, and eventually added new lighting. It was a complete makeover that turned out nicely.

More recently, we made 3 sets of heavy-duty shelving for the basement that was almost immediately filled with stuff, and at the moment we’re in the midst of rearranging rooms– moving things around, re-assigning usage and function. The latest project is re-finishing a set of stairs and changing the look of our living room.

Daily writing prompt

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

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Probably devastated. Is someone really broken beyond recovery or repair? Is life as they’ve known it over because a favorite athlete or musical artist decides to retire or move in a different direction, or they stopped carrying someone’s favorite ice cream at the grocery store?

Even if the circumstances are more legitimately serious, are people truly ruined to the point of having to start over? Sometimes yes, but more often, it seems, they’re just engaging in hyperbole, or at a loss for a more fitting word.

This word is used so blithely so often that when it actually fits a situation, it loses its punch.

A close second might be traumatized.

Daily writing prompt

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

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I’m at the age where some health issue could emerge, I suppose. Maybe something will come up in the lives of one of our kids. I’m hoping that the next six months just give us more of the same, which for me includes an almost daily wrestling with a never-ending, though often nebulous To Do list.

I’m hoping that the biggest challenge I face is finding ways to be useful, along with finding a smile– which, for various reasons, has been difficult for some time now. Or maybe the inertia surrounding church attendance will give way to more concrete action one way or another.

Daily writing prompt

What advice would you give to your teenage self?

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Don’t waste a minute worried about the bullies who pushed you into lockers– they have their own issues and might have reached the height of their power and influence already, in high school.

Read between the lines of the cynicism and nostalgia and pay attention to the practical advice given by your elders. Learn about money management and property values, practice piano and guitar to the point of proficiency. Pay attention to politics, develop a knack for detecting BS.

Learn your way around a lathe, and a woodshop in general. Don’t go to college unless you have some semblance of a plan for what comes afterwards. Value every minute you get to spend with family and friends. Be endlessly curious, exercise regularly, don’t eat junk, believe in yourself, and find a good therapist.

Don’t fear failure.

And don’t get discouraged– the love of a good woman is in the cards.

Daily writing prompt

What bores you?

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Advertising on commercial television, contrived conversation uttered to fill a silence, most political debates during campaign season, just about any statement from any member of the Trump administration, which is often both boring and rage-inducing.

An insistence on self-actualization, being all you can be; winter, at this point; and sorting through boxes in the basement.

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite drink?

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Non-alcoholic, it’s water and cold brew coffee, along with an occasional espresso drink at Starbucks. Of the alcoholic variety, probably a tie between a Gin and Tonic or Jameson and Ginger and a frosty, hoppy, slightly grapefruity IPA.

Daily writing prompt

Who are your favorite people to be around?

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I could make something up about needing to surround myself with people who push and challenge me and make me the best I can possibly be, but that would be overkill and a lie. I like being around people who I feel comfortable being around– people who make me laugh, who bring out the kid in me, who listen if I need to explain something I’m feeling or something I have a question about, who I can share a meal or a beer with and shoot the breeze about deep or mundane things. Or just sit in silence.

So, my wife and other members of the family, and a couple of college friends.

Daily writing prompt

Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.

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Probably a pair of Hoka Bondi 8s– lots of cushioning, very comfortable. I’m not sure where they’ve taken me, but I’ve worn them on many walks around the neighborhoods, and probably on trips to New England and Colorado. They’re now my work pair– the ones I wear when I’m working on anything inside or out, including snow shoveling.

This is what happens after I have a pair for a certain amount of time. They move along in the rotation to make room for a newer pair and eventually find their way to the trash barrel, after a ritual and Kondoesque acknowledgment of their usefulness.