With Thanks To the Brother-In-Law, A Journal of Writing Prompts To Occasionally Use on My Blog

It wasn't wrapped on Christmas Eve night, but it was handed to me by my brother--in-law with a comment, this is for you. I put it in my gift bag of family goods, and pulled it out when I returned to CT with a mental note to use it throughout 2019 to prompt writing when I simply don't want to write about the day I just had, the political world we live in, or the stupidity of the human species (although stupidity seems to be synonymous with being a two legged, upright, and thinking mammal).

Prompt #1: You're on a beach and you decided to write a message in a bottle to anyone and throw it to the ocean. Who would you write and what would it say?

First reaction is I would write, "Dear Aunt Sue, Mark, and Uncle Milford." Why? Well, if I threw it to the Long Island Sound, the bottle would have a better chance reaching my relatives on Long Island than anyone else. I would continue, "I'd love a good fish dinner, a margarita, and some beach time."

Boring response. I know.

If I was writing The Great Whatever, I might scribe,

Okay, you crazy, whacky fate-oriented chaos, you, it's time to bring back normalcy to the United States. This nation has gone bonkers. It's like history has been forgotten, morality a thing of the past, and knowledge, a fictitious entity. We need rationality back in the hemisphere.

Of course, I wouldn't do that because I recognize that in the end, I'm going to die, it doesn't matter, so just call me Bry, I'll go to work, I'll earn my pay, but in the end, it's just a typical day. Doobie doo, ah doobie doo, blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah.

Humans stink. We know what is right, what is immoral, and what is wrong. We know that what was yesterday can no longer be today. We also recognize, via Capitalism if nothing else, that we are a global economy and that this Earth has never been a fair space for all people. The inequities, migration, exploitation, and frustration will continue. It's inevitable, because those who have will fight to maintain. We're used to it and can't go backwards.

Perhaps tomorrow's stories will be the ones told about how 1st world nations responded to those who aren't where we are today.

What's the saying, "A ship is only as strong as its smallest hole."

That's the globe, too. It will never sit still.

So, in a message in a bottle I might write, "God, bless us. We need it."