Tag: dailyprompt

What I would do if I lost all my possessions

Wow – how apropos! Back in August our neighbor’s house burnt down. Everyone got out ok, and no one was hurt, but their house was mostly if not totally gone, and what was left was damaged either by smoke or water.

Watching that happen threw me into a strong fit of minimalism as I pondered the process of making the list of belongings the insurance company would request to pay on the claim.

It really, really makes you think about how much stuff one can accumulate that doesn’t really mean much. Things we keep for no reason other than we have it, and it seems worth keeping. And we put it back in the box where it has sat untouched for years and get on with our lives.

But I digress.

What would I do? Well, I would grieve. That’s what happens when you lose something important. You know – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. That grieving.

Then I would recover and, slowly at first but then rapidly, start accumulating new possessions. Not because I would instantly need all of them, but because our society and our culture (I live in the USA) is built on the notion that we are consumers and we must consume. I expect that I would resist for a while – the love-lost-I’ll-never-love-again thing and all – but few people are strong enough to resist for long.

Now, if I happened to move to a different society and culture, then the outcome might well be different, but even then, relative to the people around me, I will be known as the guy with stuff. I like things.

The skill I’d like to learn

What skill would I like to learn?

Very easy: Best-selling mystery novel writing.

Specifically, writing the kind of mystery novels that result in owning a house like the one in Knives Out, only without the squeaky floors and scads of ungrateful blood-sucking relatives, but yes to the adorable nurse (minus lie-puking though).

Now, on the other hand, the kid-drama would help eliminate boredom during the holidays. So maybe a little – no more than I can comfortably afford.

Alright, It’s decided, I’ve got some learning to do.

The brands I associate with

One of the saddest things about the evolution of blogging is that so many folks have abandoned it as a platform for personal expression and what’s left is folks using it for brand building. Everything is about the brand, and hence we have this prompt from WordPress today.

I believe we are at a time where brand value has already peaked, and, like so many other things, corporate America is busy destroying brand value and even the concept of the brand.

Companies are quick to abandon the values that established their brand, if they ever had them in the first place. There are few brands out there that are worth the investment of association.

So what brands do I associate with? None. Sure, there are brands that I trust, that make things I enjoy and use, but there isn’t a single brand I can think of that would say I associate with.

Things I could do more of

Exercising. Practicing gratitude. Executing on ideas.

That last one is the hardest. There are so many, choosing which to focus on it difficult, and it’s always really hard to tell when it’s just not working.

Coming up with ideas is far easier, but unfortunately ideas aren’t worth much. Execution is where the satisfaction (and potentially money) is.

Yes, I could do a lot more of that.

My favorite album is…

The album that no doubt has gotten more listens than any other is a double album, Dire Strait’s Alchemy. I’m a softie for concert/live albums, strange because I don’t go to many concerts, but imagining the venue, and the layout of the stage and whatnot from the sound it part of the fun.

Later I rented the video of the concert from Blockbuster and was more than a little disturbed to find out that the scoundrels who mastered the album changed the order of the songs. Sure, I heard the fades on the album, but I figured it was just crowd noise they were trimming. I remember first being shocked – ThEy CaN’t dO tHaT!! – and then being deeply conflicted about whether I should continue to listen to the album in the ordinal order, or in the actual order. Yeah, I got over it eventually.

Delicate Sounds of Thunder, Live: Right Here, Right Now, and AC/DC Live all got a lot of ear time as well.

Topics I’d like to be more informed about

Where I left that thing

I’ve lost something, and I’d like to be more informed about its location.

The immediate future value of my investments

Let’s say 48-72 hours or so. Just enough time to trade if necessary.

What’s coming on Monday morning at work?

On second thought, maybe this isn’t a good idea.

Not so easy

So what do I want to be more informed about? It would be a long, long list, changing by the hour, I think. So many things are easy to find and learn about these days, it’s almost less trouble to do a web search than to write it on a list.

It’s not that I feel like I know everything, but I feel like the only barrier to knowing something is the effort to research/study/ask about it.

Ah, there are a few things:

My blind spots

Not the ones I’ve been taught about and try to be aware of, I mean the new ones that are biting me in the ass. We’re constantly changing and evolving, right, so I’ve probably developed a few new blind spots.

What my coworkers and family need from me that they won’t ask for

Yes, very similar to a blind spot, but different. I find that teenagers in particular, and adults in general, EXCEL at telling a person what they don’t need but struggle to explain what they do need. Maybe blind spots and needs are related somehow.

What my life would be like without music

Cheaper

No guitars, no other instruments. No lessons. Less audio gear, no marching band fees, no instruments for the kids, no family piano (where would the cat sit to look out the window?), no monthly Spotify/Apple Music bills.

Harder

I’m not a frequent listener of music. I find it distracting a lot of the time, but when I’m really stressed out it helps a lot. My middle kid practices when they’re upset. They also practice when they’re happy, bored, getting ready for an audition or not getting ready. I’m assuming here for the purpose of the prompt, no music in my life means no music in my family’s either. That would really suck for them.

My wife would not have Jimmy Buffet, and many decorations (including on her Jeep) would make a lot less sense. And the concerts she’s been to.

Speaking of those, no going to kid’s concerts, or concerts with the kids. No sitting on bleachers watching kids play music. It’s safe to say my HOA would be happier, at least during marching band season.

Lonelier

Music is the sound of people. Car stereos. That annoying buzzing/thump noise you hear coming from fart-cars, country music blaring out of those three-wheeled motorcycle things, the person with the bluetooth speaker in the basket of their e-bike on the bike trail. We hear people talk when they’re close enough, and we hear their vehicles from far away but the human sound we often hear first from our fellow human’s presence is music. And in a few bars/thumps/buzzes it communicates so much about who and where it’s coming from.

It’s a constant, ever-present reminder that we aren’t alone, there are other folks around, and they are different. And those differences don’t really matter much. This is pretty important these days when it’s easier than ever to hunker in our bunker and avoid confronting anything making us uncomfortable.

How We Celebrate Holidays

This is a prompt from the kind folks at WordPress.com, which I’m using to deal with some writer’s block

Here’s a few:

Birthdays

The birthday person decides what’s for dinner and where. Usually there are some gifts – for the kids for sure, for my wife and I? Usually.

Christmas

We’ve gone back and forth between fake vs real trees. We bought an eye-wateringly expensive real tree at a farm in North Carolina coming back from a trip to Florida one year. It stayed green so long I was tempted to plant it in the yard. Last year we bought one from a local lot and it was fine.

Gifts are opened Christmas morning except for one gift on Christmas Eve, which is always matching pajamas. Yes, I end up wearing (technically) women’s PJs some years so they match because I am that nice of a husband for my wife who wants a cute family photo with all of us matching.

Food tends to be catch as catch can, and some years it’s been fancy, and some it’s been frozen pizza.

Halloween

When the kids were little we went trick or treating of course. Now the kids will hand out candy to trick or treaters.

One year I left the bowl of candy on our doorstep so I could go to the bathroom – I heard a shriek of laughter and when I came back the bowl was empty. I more or less hate Halloween.

Thanksgiving

So far, I think the best Thanksgiving I’ve had is one where we stayed home and the kids cooked. Everyone was happy and joyful.

Others have included the death of my father in law, a lovely trip to Florida, and various family get-togethers that are usually a good time. Aside from the death, the only really bad Thanksgiving I had was when we tried to host it, and it ended up being what people call a “marital growth” moment.

4th of July

Used to be fun, but is now kinda meh, if not outright dangerous. Lots of people like to shoot their guns here, into the air (google that to understand why it’s a problem) and those that aren’t shooting guns are setting off fireworks, all mostly while drunk. Great day to stay indoors. The last few we’ve been traveling or within days of a trip so no real celebrating.

At one time, for a few years, we celebrated the day after 4th of July as Breakfast in Bed for the Kids Day. I can’t recall exactly why that didn’t take off.