Daily writing prompt

What’s the last movie that made you cry?

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I haven’t watched a current movie in a while, so I guess it would be a couple of scenes in The Help, which we happened to come across on TNT or some such place.

The splashdown scene in Apollo 13 always gets me, maybe because Ed Harris’s Gene Krantz sinks into a chair and lets the tears flow knowing he and the crew were successful on their watch, turning potential disaster into a major triumph.

And though I haven’t seen it in a while, the concert scene at the end of Mr. Holland’s Opus always opens the flood gates.

Daily writing prompt

If you could erase one event from history, what would it be?

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The Holocaust, slavery. There’s no shortage of candidates. Since I have to choose one, it would be the nuclear bomb.

I realize it might have led to consequences regarding the ceasing of hostilities with Japan in WWII, but we’d be better off without the leverage and threat, without the specter of annihilation hanging over our heads every day, not to mention the waste of trillion$ on its development and essentially worldwide procurement.

Daily writing prompt

What’s a conspiracy theory you actually find believable?

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As time passes, I feel as though the assassination of John F. Kennedy has earned its place as an unsettled case. Early on, I took the Warren Commission report as gospel, but I’ve since come to realize that cover-up in general is not beyond the purview of most any government, especially in the case of an earth-shattering event such as this. And though 95% of the documentation from the time is now public, it’s that other 5% that still has me and many others wondering.

Logic keeps asking the question, “How could anyone keep a secret for this long, given the gravity and ubiquitous attention paid to the events of November 22, 1963?” Oswald may very well have acted alone, but the suspicion may lie with the extent of involvement of foreign players and our own domestic agencies in putting him up to it.

I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theory junkie, but this case, now almost 63 years old, still feels like an open wound, for some reason.

Daily writing prompt

How do you deal with uncertainty?

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Historically, not very well. I prefer answers and explanations. I guess I can compartmentalize and carry on, to an extent, but it’s difficult for me not to carry around the unknowns and have them weigh on me.

Daily writing prompt

What’s a moment when you realized you were officially an adult?

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I was adulting before I moved out of the house I grew up in, but I don’t think it really hit me until I left for the last time as a single person. I still remember walking out the door on my way to our wedding and thinking something like, “This is it. Life is changing now, and from here on out, I’ll just be coming back here to visit.”

That was a kairos moment.

Daily writing prompt

Which is the best restaurant in your city?

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A place called The Forge gets my vote. I guess one would classify it as pub food. Great atmosphere, friendly staff, a decently varied menu, good beers on tap. Their specialty is a French cut pork chop that’s out of this world– big, tender, and flavorful.

There is also a food truck that spends a lot of time in this neck of the woods– El Puerto de las Empanadas. Exceptional! We occasionally frequent that when they’re around, often order a rice bowl topped with garlic aioli that really hits the spot.

Daily writing prompt

If you had a time machine and could send just one message to your past self, what would it say?

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To my past self of high school age: as much as it is in your control, find a job that you like and that pays well. Retirement will come and you’ll be glad to have an adequate nest egg.

Don’t concern yourself with perfection. In some ways, it is a pursuit of vanity, it might consume you, and it will take up too much of your time. Mistakes will be made, and competence is a fine attribute.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not “all about you.” Before you’ve done anything, you’re already the only person in the world like you. Work on being less self-interested. There will be lots of need to tend to.

Daily writing prompt

Which author would you love to have dinner with?

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I’d say Hemingway, but I think I’d be too intimidated by him, and he’s dead. Maybe Juval Noah Harari, John Fugelsang, Doris Kearns Goodwin, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Daily writing prompt

What’s a moment when a stranger completely restored your faith in people?

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As helpful as these writing prompts can be, one issue I have is that they occasionally present situations that require retrieval from the memory banks, which in this particular instance has thus far resulted in no examples of faith being restored by a stranger. I’ve seen plenty of them on YouTube, though I’m not sure how many are staged or just AI. Nothing from real life is coming to mind at the moment, beyond someone holding a door and offering a kind word.

Despite getting our daily overdose of reminders of people’s capacity for behaving poorly– often our leaders– I realize that kindness and bravery and other virtuous behavior are by no means in short supply. In general, I still have faith in humanity, just not in some among the current batch of elected humanity– if “humanity” is the right word– holding office in this country and other places around the world.

Wait! I just thought of someone we met a week or so ago. My wife and I were visiting a working farm that’s also a tourist attraction in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and we happened to run into the fourth generation farmer who helps run the place.

He gave us a ride around the property, showed us what they were doing, told us what they had plans to do, and was proud of what they had accomplished thus far. He might be one of the world’s greatest salesmen, but it felt like a serendipitous moment, from our perspective, since we were wandering around, I wasn’t sure where we should be walking, and this man out of the blue offers us a tour, takes maybe a half-hour out of his still-busy day to give us the lay of the land.

I remember thinking that I’ve seen this kind of down-to-earth, unabashed, unprovoked kindness somewhere else, and it was from another farmer closer to home.

Anyway, there are people around who are so comfortable in their own skin that their “genuineness” just pours out of them. They don’t know any other way to be, and it feels good to be in their presence, gives one hope, sets an example.

Daily writing prompt

If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?

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“It’s 2054, and you’re still driving.”