As a noun: it describes primarily the middle digit of either hand which when extended appears to give digital direction which is propped up by the supporting thumb.
As a verb it describes the action of extending said digit as in ‘He flangipropped the maniac driving erratically down the main street.’
A Flangiprop has found respectability in present day society. At one time it denoted vulgarity, something used only by the uneducated, but since Presidents and Queens started expressing feelings by gesture, it has become fashionable.
I am late getting to the Daily Prompt at WordPress.com because I slept late. Now the why of sleeping late is rather embarrassing but it goes something like this:
Anyway now for the prompt: Run outside. Take a picture of the first thing you see. Run inside, Take a picture of the second thing you see. Write about the connection between these two random objects, people, or scenes.
Grabbing my camera I ran outside. Literally ran since that was the instruction and I am basically a rule follower.
Snow going!
The first thing? Yup. I mentioned warm winds the other day and the thirsty force of nature gobbled up my snow.
My winter
It’s a far cry from the photo I posted the other day (as above).
Next I ran again. (instructions and rules you know)
Windows open
And this is what came up on the second look: Open windows, every where in the house beckoning in this false spring.
Birds are singing. Residual snow in the first photo is even less this few minutes later. The darned old Magnolia tree is again in bud as are so many other trees. False springs are such a danger for crops due later as a freeze is certain to follow and the rhythm of nature will be off and in the long run it will mean more failed crops, less food and higher priced food in the future.
BUT on such a day (it is 12 cenlsius which in real language is 53.6 F) it is impossible not to let ones heart soar in the glorious warmth. Yup for Canucks this is almost shorts and Tee weather! Because after all we Canadians are a hardy lot!
Well I ;guess that is the question of the day and the very thought starts my mental salivating glands..well..salivating. The exact prompt is: If you could read a book containing all that has happened and will ever happen in your life, would you? If you choose to read it, you must read it cover to cover.
Why is the consideration of this action intriguing?
I think it comes down to only 2 choices, You cannot just read the past, you are obligated to read the future. For those who believe in fate the reading of the future would not be a difficult choice. You read it and you accept it.
For those who do not believe in fate the reading of the future will simply be entertainment. Let the book say anything for you believe in Free Will.
But there are some, at least there is one – me- who believes there is a certain degree of pre destiny but we all have the free will to follow it or not. Sometimes I think that those with the most successful lives are the ones that recognized choices and felt drawn to one decision or another. When we choose another path other than the ‘right’ one, our lives get a little rockier than needed. As I write this I think maybe there is a dose of malarkey there, except something similar but clearly unexplainable is behind that thought.
For folks like myself who hold this kind of belief we would have no problem reading the whole book, because we would realize that even though our past actions led us down the path to the predicted future, we would still have some choice in changing it.
Regardless of the past, regardless of the predicted future, what we choose in this very moment, and every moment after that, we write the story of our lives and it will never be a straight line leading to a pre-conclusion.
This very thing is what strengthens our hope for the future. We do not have to remain what we have been and what we are. Each single minute or second can change that with every thought.
Illustration of the Parkinson disease by Sir William Richard Gowers from A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System in 1886 showing the characteristic posture of PD patients (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Rethink Mental Illness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Helplessness: that dull, sick feeling of not being the one at the reins. When did you last feel like that – and what did you do about it?
There is no last time to Helplessness. It is a constant in many of our lives. It doesn’t necessary pervade every aspect of our day but it exists. I guess like the number one it is lonely.
What makes us helpless? I think it is when we have a desire to change or alter something and have no apparent means of doing so.
We are helpless as we watch our children grow and make decisions that we don’t necessarily agree with and we have found out by experience there is a better way. For some reason the wisdom learned from living does not always get passed along to the next generation. Unfortunately this is more common than not.
We are helpless as we watch global violence unfold on our TV screens and it means little more than an action movie.
We are helpless as we watch the homeless trying to find shelter on a bitter cold night.
We are helpless as we watch loved ones struggle with and lose the battle against disease: Cancer, Parkinson’s, Multi-system failure, and the most debilitating -depression, bipolar disease, and Personality Disorders.
Unlike physical based illness, mental illness is often not comforted by touch and words. We may not like it but can at least understand a physical failing or degeneration. We can understand our bodies betraying us. We are unable to reach inside someone’s head and remove offending thoughts that charge around causing confusion, fear and pain. Strange thoughts, strange words. Frightening. And all we can do is stand outside the arena of horror as our loved ones fight and unseen but deadly battle.
We are helpless as these victims heap another pile of guilt on themselves knowing what it does to others. To their loved ones.
We are helpless as we watch parents and children and partners dishing themselves an unhealthy serving of guilt believing that if they had been good, or done things differently the victim, their loved one would not have to endure hell on earth.
Sometimes the worst hells are not the ones we walk through ourselves but the ones others have to go through and we are helpless to change
Helpless. That’s us.
And sometimes all we can do is pray and believe in prayer and pray some more. Do you know I have had atheists tell me they have prayed in crisis. Not to a defined diety but to something.
I have seen the miracle of prayer. Sometimes prayer may must bring some comfort, some strength if not healing.
Gosh I hope some of you have been able to come up with a funny take on this WordPress prompt. Otherwise – we – remain- helpless – in too many areas.
I usually do not post on a weekend but the Daily Prompt caught my eye and of course I just had to respond. DP Challenge: Take the first sentence from your favorite book and make it the first sentence of your post.
My very very first thought was my favorite first sentence is not in my favorite book. Way back in October 2011 I wrote about three of my personal fave authors and called it Cussler, Koontz and Stockett, and the line said, “Death was driving an emerald green Lexus“.
The first sentence of my favorite book is “He should never have taken that short cut.” It’s from Michael Crighton’s book TIMELINE and the poor book is barely hanging on to existence. Well actually it is not hanging on at all. Its soft cover is curled back from the spine top and bottom. The back cover has about an inch square flapped firmly back and some of the pages are missing. At first I kept putting the pages back loose leaf like and then one day a few pages disappeared. That was okay as I thought I would just fill the gaps in from memory as I read and reread and reread. This book has served me well for the last twelve years but I can’t put it to rest until I replace it.
I discovered a long time ago that bedtime reading cannot be anything I am currently reading for the first time because I simply cannot put the book down. So bedtime fare is one of a few fave rereads (although sometimes I get so caught up in it….well you know.)
So my poor book, like a weary soldier continues to soothe my soul and mind and guard against that thief of the night, Insomnia’ and yes it will be retired once I find another copy.
my valiant knight/nightlooks pretty weary huh?held together by the last straw I think
Christine loved words. And her favorite were the last words.
She lived her life well enough to bring special meaning to the word, ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few”
But they certainly were too few to mention.
She never quite took life seriously enough feeling it was all so transient
And most of tragedy had a good maniacal comedy about it.
Life itself was not a joke to Chris, it was the seriousness that people persist in believing it to be that was funny.
Christine wanted to impart some good to the world so she became a nurse and thought, ‘Yes this is doing good.’
Then she became a teacher of nurses and thought, ‘If I can fill one person with the passion for nursing that I have then that is good.’
Then she became a manager and director thinking she could make the most impact there.
She sat in Queen’s Park on the Emergency Health Services Committee and though, ‘Yes here I can make a difference.’
By the time she retired Christine wondered if in fact she had made even a ripple in the great ocean of health care and then
It occurred to her that she had – not to the great cumbersome machine itself but to individuals which may seem small but in the larger picture is not.
Christine raised two sons who were her pride. She loved each fiercely and respected them and their families in all the choices of their lives.
She had two great great loves in her life – her grandsons and the opportunity to be in the moment with them every day meant more to her than all the riches on earth.
She thought herself a poet and writer but the best stories stayed deep within.
She wanted her death – well her passing since death itself does not exist – to be a time of great joy and hilarity.
No tears – do not let the best part of her earthly being, the joy, insane laughter and stories be lost to sadness.
Get out and party and laugh.
Talk about the time she and B got lost in the golf club parking lot and could not find their way out.
Talk about the time she and J CSI’d the vacuum cleaner bag.
Talk about the time…the time…
Christine would want you to know that you should be smiling and laughing this very moment
And all of the ‘times’ she remembered are on CD for your viewing pleasure because after
Yesterday we said goodbye to a wonderful woman, mother, grandmother with a couple of greats attached and an Aunt. I am not sure if as children we called her Auntie Vee or Aunt Eve.
The last of her generation, having outlived all her siblings and a widow for sixteen years. Some things never changed; her laugh and her generosity.
It didn’t matter what problems presented themselves she was a person who lived in the moment. She wore tragedy like armor which seemed to make her stronger.
You were guaranteed two things each visit. Tea and laughter. My sis commented on one of our visits that since she had recently lost her taste for tea, the Tetley Company had to lay off staff. Weak and failing she managed her laugh. You know the kind, deep full hearted expression of hilarity that embraces everyone present and at first you laugh at the subject and then you laugh because it feels good.
Her generosity knew no limits. Admire something, she gave it to you. It happened to me in the sixties when I admired a pair of green earrings she was wearing, and I have seen it with others.
On November 1st my Aunt’s daughter suddenly died during surgery. November 30th my Aunt joined her.
I left the remaining cousins yesterday with an overwhelming feeling of sadness, knowing from experience what they now have to endure. My thoughts and prayers are with each of them.
The Daily Prompt folks picked a suggestion by Courtney that certainly seems a lot easier than that old Shakespeare quote: To Be or Not To Be. Although really if one is then you already are Being which of course is a very very superficial interpretation.
Today’s Challenge from WordPress is: If you had to choose between being able to write a blog (but not read others’) and being able to read others’ blogs (but not your own), which would you pick? Why?
For me there is no challenge. I am definitely a reader. I’ve tried writing…okay..so I continue to try.. and it is difficult. Okay Okay…sometimes it is fun. Well most of the time it is fun and there is a certain satisfaction to be had in creating but, and this is a pretty big BUT, I am a reader. Of many things.
If I have four books at hand then I will devour them within a week. I know, we are not talking about books. The Challenge pertains to blogs. Your blogs. And yup I will surrender my pen or rather keyboarding digits to read what you write.
Reading (blogs) is more than information gathering and it brings to mind yet another poem. Elizabeth Barrett Browning‘s How Do I Love Thee. If I had one thing I have not had in this life it would be the relationship she had with her partner, coauthor, and husband Robert Browning and the passion and devotion she so sweetly shared with the public.
You see for me, reading your blogs, inspires, educates, motivates, consoles, comforts, exhilarates, invigorates, provokes, prompts, excites, and generates a whole mess of thinking great thoughts. Why I wish I could list all of you and what you do for me (although that is what I am seeking to do in my Friday Following in the FootSteps series – about to be continued this week). To name names in a single post fills me with fear of forgetting even one person and besides it would take pages and pages and pages and … well you get the idea.
To read and not write, if it had to be one way or the other is a no brainer for me because in addition to all the reasons there is one even more important. In sharing yourselves, your thoughts, you are allowing yourself to be known. To be cherished. And therein lies the real truth. You have become part of my world, part of my existence. And my life would be poorer without you.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Todays Daily Post Prompt is Hindsight and suggests “Now that you’ve got some blogging experience under your belt, re-write your very first post.” So I took a look at December 19, 2010 and have to say since it is one of my fave stories to tell I just could not bring myself to rewrite it. Hmm now I must go and deal with the fact that in almost 2 years I have learned nada.
One cannot be single for a significant number of years and not have experienced dates spawned no doubt from some weird alter universe. Well that may be exaggerating just a bit. But oh my, where do they come from?
One chap whose given name will not be used, but who I called Eyore for reasons soon to be made obvious, I met on a dating site. After the initial on line chats he suggested we meet for coffee. I agreed and we set a Saturday afternoon for our first, and what became our last encounter.
Now I think the folk who work at every Williams, Second Cup,Starbucks and yes even “Timmies” suddenly have the most fun jobs in existence. Internet dating and the perfunctory first meeting have made these centers the place to be. Take the time to grab that cup of java…
Today’s Daily Prompt was just too enticing to pass it by. Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.
Well the first book I grabbed was a notebook so with a little extra lean in the opposite direction I picked up my latest read. Once I saw it I was tempted to go for another but figured that wasn’t fair. After all what is the poiont of a game if you don’t follow the rules?
Many years ago I fell into the ‘buzz’ trap getting all caught up with my friends when Weight Watcherswas a relatively new program. Oh my we counted our proteins, fats, and breads, adhered to three fish meals a week, and made sure we ticked off every wee box for water, milk and fluids. Our social get togethers amongst the women folk were all about what and how we achieved and discussions ensued on the validity of the program (after all it was over seen by physicians) and how well we were doing.
Weight Watchers company logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Now belonging to an active weight loss club is a lot like being addicted to, say, gambling. When the scales are not in sight the conversations can be all about your success – how much you lost (or gained when it comes to gambling),- with little discussion about your set backs or losses.
‘Why you know I lost 25 but must confess I gained a bit back but then I lost it again and I feel wonderful!’
Meanwhile you think to yourself, Honey, I saw you when you joined months ago and the only difference I can see is your hairstyle.
*Actually the program works fine as does any weight loss program **if you follow the plan.
But this post is not about losing or gaining, about succeeding or failing. It’s about perception and the why of things. By the way I did all right on the program then and each of the ten times I joined in the following decades. Matter of fact I will never again even see my initial joining weight (which I thought was soooo huge) but now lies 25 pounds ago quite happily. This is because I choose to believe the medical data that says an elderly person (well as close to elderly as damn is to swearing) should not be stick thin. It’s healthy to carry a little weight. I would also like to say it is all behind me now (get it? get it?) but that would be way too much of a stretch because in fact it is all in front. haha
But now I realize I can believe pretty much anything I choose..so my hypothesis is that food intake has nothing to do with a generous middle. It all has to do with Gravity and the moon, tides and oceans, and because we are 90% water – salt water that is- well we reflect mother earth which lends credence to “‘This is the main reason for the tidal bulge on the opposite side of the Earth to the Moon.” *Gravity by Brian Clegg page 82 third full sentence.
It is quite humorous decades later to laugh or chuckle at our youthful worries and thoughts. It is also quite satisfying to find joy in the me of now and quite like how I am. What a difference a little age and wisdom makes.
bridgesburning 