If Only I Could……

Daily writing prompt

What skill would you like to learn?

I am often dismayed by my own lack of skills. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of genuine interest and curiosity or just a lack of self-confidence and belief but it is rather astonishing how little I know and can do. My wife is often exasperated at my lack of knowledge and skills. Quite frequently this leads her to simply doing a task herself instead of asking me to.

Can I do car repairs, oh heavens no, that necessitates a trip to the repair shop. My friend once told me that he changed the brakes on his car by watching a YouTube video….I was surprised and instantly disappointed in myself, I can watch videos as well as anyone, but I decided it was probably for the best that I have no desire to attempt brake repairs as that could go disastrously wrong.

Can I do basic carpentry, not at all, I have a hard time driving a straight nail. Plumbing and electrical repairs are way out of my skill set and quite frankly I would be slightly fearful that I would make whatever the problem was only worse. I can perhaps change a tire in an emergency if I follow the instructions in the owners manual and I had my glasses handy.

I am quite capable of following instructions so I can put together stuff, you know the stuff you buy that says rather ominously on the side of the box “some assembly required”……usually my wife will come and check on my progress after an hour or so, her presence casting a shadow over me with a gentle inquiry of….. “so, how’s it going, need any help ?”

No matter my progress I confidently exclaim that….. “I’m almost done and just a few more things to tighten”…..this is of course an obvious lie as there are half of the pieces and parts scattered on the floor and a pile of screws, bolts, nuts and washers that I hope are just extras. She usually sighs and leaves me alone in my misery of assembly, her sigh saying so much. But unless I need an extra pair of hands I can follow the instructions to completion and I proudly stand over my assembled work hours later showing it off like a sculptor who just created a masterpiece.

I’m awed by those talented individuals who can see a pile of wood and construct a piece of furniture or a person who can walk into an empty room and envision a cozy space with just the right wall decorations and properly spaced furniture so the room has a certain flow and warmth. I know that most people aren’t born as carpenters or interior designers, except Jesus was a carpenter so maybe he was born with those skills, but most people spend hours acquiring said skills. Perhaps this is my weakness, I never really had an interest in spending so much time on something that it turned into a skill……but as I age there is one skill I wish I had and that is the ability to play an instrument.

Much like my inability to drive a nail or change the brake pads on a car, I have zero musical talent. I can’t sing, dance, read music or carry a tune. My musical ability peaked when I was a teenager and I could make a mix tape on my stereo adjusting the knobs just so to get the perfect balance of bass and treble. I wish I would have kept those mix tapes as it would be some sort of tangible proof of musical ability but now I just open the Pandora app on my phone to get a mix tape type listening experience.

What I would really like would be to learn how to play the guitar or piano….I want to be the old guy on the beach strumming a guitar at sunset or the guy at the piano jauntily playing a sing-along as everyone joins in. I suppose it’s never too late to learn a skill, it just takes time and interest and commitment. So perhaps one day I’ll find the time, I’ll make a commitment and learn a useful skill, one that doesn’t involve an instruction manual and doesn’t cause my wife to sigh plaintively.

Take Care….Peace and Love

John

Finding My Way

Daily writing prompt

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

View all responses

Well for starters I can’t imagine anybody wanting to write a biography about me, but lets suspend reality for a brief moment and suppose that it somehow happens. I also can’t imagine anybody reading a biography about me. You know how you are browsing through a bookstore and they have the shelves or tables of bestsellers and then there’s usually a rack of staff recommendations……typically these are lesser known books or authors that the staff enjoys reading and they want other people to know about. Usually there is a little blurb about what the staff member enjoyed most about the book something like……

“I couldn’t put it down”…..or…. “a real page turner”…..or …….. “memorable characters”……

I would have a feeling that the poor staff member who was assigned to read my biography would have a hard time finding a positive blurb about it……it would probably be something like….

“well I finished it”……or…… “at least I wasn’t scrolling through social media”…..or…… “helped with my insomnia”……

Remember back when there were video tapes of movies and we all went to Blockbuster to rent a movie and you’d be browsing the aisles and you’d see some movie you never heard of but it just came out…..this was the infamous “straight to video movie”…….named for the fact that it never even was worthy enough to be distributed in movie theaters but the studio wanted to try to recoup some of the expenses of making it so they tried to sell or rent it in VCR format.

I don’t know what the equivalent of that is in book form, but that’s what my biography would be. Relegated to the bargain table as soon as it was published, offered for some low price to cover the cost of printing. Even the summary on the back cover would be underwhelming…..

Finding My Way

One average man’s journey from middle class suburbia childhood to hard-working middle class adult. The trials and tribulations, the joys and heartache along the way are a microcosm of our times. The struggle to find a worthwhile career, the improbable meeting of his soulmate, his strange childlike fascination with the world around him and much to his wife’s consternation his immaturity grows greater with each year that passes…… “I was more mature as an 18 yr. old than I am now.”

That’s definitely a book to be found on the bargain table or at a thrift store…..

Peace and Love

John

Palm Slap Forehead

Daily writing prompt

What are your favorite emojis?

View all responses

Ah, the emoji….the cute, whimsical picture form of wordplay to express an emotion without actually writing it. The perfect symbol of our time…..why write something when you can send a picture. The various forms of smiley faces, laughing faces, crying faces are just the tip of the iceberg. Emojis for people, places, objects, work occupations, animals and even food…..an emoji for literally everything.

For a long time I refused to use emojis…..I admit I felt they were beneath me….I used texting for quick communication. I didn’t need an emoji to express myself. I could do that on my own just fine without pictures thank you. I figured the emoji was for kids and I even felt it represented a decline in our overall society. Cavemen had drawn pictures on walls as a way of communicating and here we were millions of years later resorting to silly smiley faces and eggplants to communicate our feelings. We’ve developed hundreds if not thousands of languages to communicate and yet we seem to be devolving back to communicating with pictures. And so for a long time I refused to use emojis….yes I was being a bit old fashioned.

Looking back it was rather silly and even curmudgeonly of me to hate on emojis. I had a friend whom I texted with almost daily and she always included emojis in her texts. She had a few favorites, the laughing face and the peace sign were included in most every text but she used all kinds of emojis….she used emojis I never even knew existed. I started referring to her as the emoji queen and she was an adult so I figured what’s the harm in throwing in an emoji to complement or even accentuate my texts.

Like most people I have a couple of favorites….the shoulder shrug and the face palm my two most frequently used but I’ve certainly expanded my portfolio. So go ahead and include an emoji in a text…..they’re fun and they convey an emotion quickly and no they shouldn’t replace talking or writing and be careful as they can sometimes be taken the wrong way…..that eggplant emoji just doesn’t mean lets have eggplant tonight ( insert face palm emoji here )

Peace and Love….

John

Admiration

Daily writing prompt

What is something others do that sparks your admiration?

View all responses

There are many traits I admire in others. Perhaps it’s the creeping doubts in my own self-confidence or maybe the inability to let go of mistakes I’ve made in the past but I always seem to look at others and see their best qualities and wish I had those.

The ability to lead either by words or example is a wonderful trait that only a few truly possess. Some leaders are given titles and expect because of it that others will be inspired by them. They lead by edict or worse by slogans and their uninspired followers are dragged along with them. We seem to be living in an age sorely lacking of true leaders. Is it that so called leaders are too scared to make a mistake or are simply covering their own butts but truly inspiring leaders seem to be a relic of a by-gone day.

Another trait I admire is the ability to find humor in difficult situations or in the simple everyday fabric of life. Laughter is truly something that binds us all. People of different cultures, people of different countries, people who speak different languages can all find commonality in laughter. Laugh everyday, make someone laugh everyday….that’s a pretty great day.

Owning up to one’s mistakes and learning by them is an admirable trait that few people seem enabled to do. We seem to live in a time where plowing ahead with ideas that are clearly wrong is often celebrated as an individual living as they choose. But it’s the person who can make a mistake, admit it, change their mind on something, learn and grow that we should be encouraging.

But as I sit here tapping away on the keyboard I realize it’s once again been awhile since I’ve last written. Procrastination, lack of time, and just plain tiredness have conspired against my creativity. So the one trait I’ve been admiring in others is the ability to write everyday. I follow a handful of other bloggers who faithfully compose a thoughtful bit of writing each day. How they can do this must be some sort of wizardry as I often struggle to make a post once a week.

So here’s to you the keyboard warriors tapping away making words dance across the screen in a tango of harmony and symphony. Your creativity I salute, your determination is to be admired and your ability to focus and write is a trait I long for…..

As always….Peace and Love

Like, comment or subscribe….I will continue to post although irregularly