Daily writing prompt

Are you superstitious?

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A little bit. To this day, I tie my left shoe before my right, because I once saw, a long time ago, that Phil Esposito always tied his left skate before his right– part of his pre-game ritual. I started doing that with my own skates, and it has extended to other footwear.

I don’t pay much attention to Friday the 13th, and more than one black cat has crossed my path with no ill effect. But I try not to walk under ladders.

I’m a creature of habit and routine, but I don’t know how much of that can be considered superstition.

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.

Daily writing prompt

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

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Probably Amazon, or L.L. Bean. Maybe Home Depot, or Woodpeckers, possibly Crutchfield.

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.

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.

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.

Daily writing prompt

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

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I’m a tall, thin man who looks young for his age, or so I was once told.

Daily writing prompt

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

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I suppose food, clothing, and shelter, but on closer examination, maybe eyeglasses, comfortable shoes, and a coffee maker.

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.

Daily writing prompt

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

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I don’t know if there were any. I’ve always been ready to move on.
In retrospect, and perhaps as a function of nostalgia, I might choose the college years, when we were on our own, far from home, and having a taste of what in certain ways was more freedom than we’d known before or have known since.