Friday’s Odds and Ends

This will be short today as I have to limit my computer time for a few days, so lets start with something to make you smile. This is a picture of a moon flower from my back flowerbed.  The plant came to Texas with me when I moved here from Omaha, NE, and I was so pleased that it seemed as happy here as I am. 

moon flower

Have you been following the Pope’s visit to America? Fox News has taken him to task, in a most disrespectful way, for his challenge to our government, and to business, to be more responsible stewards of our planet and our resources. One commentator said that that was not his role. “His job is to get souls to heaven, period.”

Huh? Church leaders are supposed to offer guidance in how we act as responsible and moral members of society, and they have been doing it for centuries. (Not always well, but that is the subject of another rant.)

Isn’t it our job to get our souls into heaven?

This is what Pope Francis said to Congress on Thursday:

“If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.”

Friday’s Funnies

Gotta love Pickles  by Brian Crane. Earl and Opal are sitting in the living room when all of a sudden she bursts into song, “If the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s…”

“Must you?”Earl asks

She finishes, “Amore.”

Then she asks, “Haven’t you heard  the quote, ‘Don’t die with your music still inside you’?”

“Sure, why not infect someone else with it before you go?”

And another one from Pickles. –  Earl and Nelson are walking across the lawn. A sprinkler is spewing water a mile high, and  Nelson asks, “Aren’t you going to fix this sprinkler, grandpa?”

Earl considers. “I don’t know. It seems like kind of a shame. Maybe this sprinkler has always dreamed of being a geyser. Who am I to stifle its creativity and make it conform to what everyone thinks a sprinkler should do?”

Nelson walks away and says to the dog,  “Grandpa really hates fixing sprinklers.”

This one is from Crankshaft  by Tom Batiuk. –  Crankshaft is reading on his Kindle. His friend, Ralph walks into the room. Crankshaft asks, “So what happens to these e-books once you have finished with them, Ralph?”

Ralph, “They just stay there forever. Or, I suppose you could pass them on to your next of Kindle.” Ralph laughs, “get it?”

Crankshaft says, “You’re going to get it in a minute.”

Closing with another one from Pickles. Not because it is particularly funny, but it is something I think many of us can relate to. –  Earl is talking to his grandson Nelson and asks, “Did you have a hard day at school today?”

“Yeah.”

Earl puts his hand on Nelson’s shoulder and says, “Well, life can be hard sometimes. It’s full of frustrations and disappointments. But in spite of it all, we persevere and suck up the pain because at the end of it all…”

Earl pauses and they walk into the kitchen. He says, “There is ice cream.”

(Yes there is!)

Writing Wisdom Over at Writer Unboxed, a wonderful blog for writers that I highly recommend, John Vorhaus recently posted an essay titled Story Porn. Not only was it a great blog post with lots of good tips for story development, his title and what it means was most clever. See, he encourages writers to look at pictures to get excited about their story. Sort of the way porn works for… well… maybe you know. Or maybe you don’t. (smile)

Consider what John had to say:

 I write until I can’t think of anything else to write and then, instead of staring off into space, I stare at pictures. I stare at pictures until I think of something to write, then I write. When I run dry again, I go back to my pictures. Words to pictures, pictures to words, back and forth in a nice, gentle, productive process of advancing my story and my understanding of all it has to offer.

What about you? Do you think this process would work well for you? Please leave a comment here or hop over to Writer Unboxed and let John know directly.

That’s it for me folks. Have a great weekend.

3 thoughts on “Friday’s Odds and Ends”

  1. I don’t use pictures to get my brain working again, I read something, often nonfiction. Others I know listen to some music. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

    It’s interesting what you said about the Pope’s visit and his speeches. Perhaps the listeners felt they were being lectured, and that tends to set most folks on edge. I discovered a similar situation with the season premieres of two of my favorite shows this week. Getting lectured instead of entertained is not going to make me keep watching because I watch to relax. When I want to be “educated,” I research material written by experts, not TV writers. I guess that’s my rant for today. 😀

    1. That’s an interesting point about the lectures, Patricia. I didn’t think about what the Pope said as being perceived as one, but I can see where some might. Curious what shows you are referring to.

      I liked the idea of the pictures as writing prompts. Once when I took a class in humanities, the professor had us look at paintings by Monet and DaVinci and other masters and find the story. That was quite an interesting exercise.

  2. Pingback: A Call for Social Justice | It's Not All GravyIt's Not All Gravy

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