09/26/2018 – Serendipity – Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

BE INSPIRED! SAVE YOUR WORLD! – Marilyn Armstrong

Wednesday RDP – INSPIRE

There is so much going on in the world. All around the world, not just in the U.S.A. There has been a terrifying resurgence of the kind of retrograde, negative, and hatefulness I thought we fixed with that huge second world war that was fought just before I was born.

We forget. Or maybe, more accurately, we never fully understood what happened. We know what “we” did. We went and we fought the evil powers that had arisen “elsewhere.” Even today, we obviously don’t understand how it began. How it came to be so powerful that it took an entire world at war to make it end.

So here we are, 75 years later, and it’s happening again.

We don’t understand what happened then and apparently, we don’t see what’s happening now. Sometimes I blame the failure of our schools to properly teach history — real history. The truth about how a country goes from a democracy that has always been a home to every form of the arts and instead becomes an engine of terror and destruction.

It’s not alone, either. It may be the “biggest” of the countries that became the opposite of what they had always held dear, but they were by no means alone. There have been horror stories on every continent and no nation has been exempt.

Here we are again. Lying to the public with a public willingly believing the lies because the lies notch naturally into their personal hatreds and prejudices.

Do we have to completely destroy ourselves before we are inspired to look at our cultures, our societies, our world and say “This is not the way? Let’s be better.” Or, as Jim Jeffries likes to say, “We can all do better.”

We can all do a lot better. We need to do a lot better. We need to inspire each other with truth, honesty, caring, integrity, decency, and honor. Because if we can’t find those things and make them part of our souls and teach them to our children, there’s nothing worth saving.

Be inspired. Find the best parts of yourself. Spread the goodness to the world around you. Be better!

INSPIRED: WHY I WRITE WHILE YOU PREFER GOLF – Marilyn Armstrong

Wednesday RDP – INSPIRE

A friend asked me why I do this, why I blog. So I asked her why she plays golf.

This is an evergreen post for me. I’ve modified a bit with each iteration, but it says something that’s fundamentally true about the creative process and certainly about my creative process. Writing is me. It’s the sport I play, the goal I seek. Sometimes, I need to remind myself of things I already know, so here it is, again.

We do what we do because we love it, need to do it, or both. For me, writing is like breathing. If I don’t write, I strangle on words never used. My friend needs to compete, to be active. To play golf or she will suffocate.

I can’t begin to count the number of people who have told me they want to be writers, but don’t know how. They want me to tell them how. That they asked the question makes me fairly sure they are not writers.

If you are a writer, you write. You will write and will keep writing because it is not what you do, it is what you are. It is as much a part of you as your nose or stomach.

I started writing as soon as I learned to read, which was about 45 minutes after someone handed me a reading primer. It was as if a switch had been thrown in my brain. Words felt like home.

Writing was (is) exactly the same as speaking, but takes longer. I have never minded spending the extra time. I love crafting sentences until they are just right. I love that I can go back and fix written words, that unlike words you say, you can take them back.

Raison d’être? I write because I’m a writer. Writing is how I express myself, how I interact with the world. It’s my window, my doorway, my handshake, my dreams.

If you are going to be a writer, you probably already know it. Practice will make you a better writer, can help you understand the techniques you need to build a plot and create books that publishers will buy. Writing itself is a gift.

If you have it, you know it — and most of us know it quite young.

Writers have words. They collect in your mind, waiting to be written. We have heads full of words, sentences, pronouns, adjectives, and dependent clauses.

My advice to everyone who aspires to be a writer is to write. Don’t talk about it. Do it. Whatever medium works for you. Blogging, novels, short stories, poetry. Whatever. I’d also advise you to not talk about your work until you’ve done a significant amount of writing. I can’t count the number of great ideas left on barroom floors, talked away until there was nothing left but a vague memory and a lot of empty wine glasses. Save your words to a better purpose.

Write a lot even if it’s mostly not very good. Sooner or later, you’ll find your thing. Or not.

But at least you will know you did your best, even if your best wasn’t quite up to snuff. If you don’t write, it might be a personal loss for you, but possibly, it’s the world’s loss.

You will never know how good you can be if you don’t at least give it a try.

PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE TODAY! – Marilyn Armstrong

Yesterday was “National Register to Vote” Day. It does NOT mean you can’t register today. If you are reading this, you have a computer and you can do it. It takes a few minutes. You might discover you are already registered, but it doesn’t hurt to check.

More people didn’t vote in the last presidential election than voted. Everyone seemed to think their individual vote didn’t matter. The thing is, probably one vote didn’t matter but collectively, ALL those votes mattered enough to get Trump elected rather than Clinton who had three million more votes than Trump had.

This election is called “the mid-terms.” It is when we re-elect the entire house of Representatives and part of the Senate. There are a lot of governors up for re-election too as well as many state-level representatives and senators. Everything matters!

Please vote. Regardless of what you believe, I’d prefer you vote “my way,” but most important is that you vote. That all of you care enough about our form of government to make your voices heard. If we do not get out there and vote, we will not have a republic. It is slipping away from us and you are the reason that’s happening.

Maybe it really IS time to get serious about making significant changes to our Constitution. It’s a few hundred years old and there are artifacts in it that need changing, certainly including how the electoral college is created and used.

None of this will happen without YOU. There will be no power-structure changes unless you make it happen. Democracy lasts as long as the people who are governed by it care enough to make it work and if we don’t care, we’ll live in an oligarchy where the rich do whatever they want and we are crunched under their feet. Isn’t that already happening?

We are in real danger of losing the only thing that made this country great: our freedom.

There’s a website – USA.org – which gives the overall explanation of voting in the U.S. Each state has its own rules so you will have to find your state and follow the instructions. It is not complicated.

But please do it. Today. If you want to be a free person in a free country, you will either become part of the solution or you will be the reason it ends.

There is nothing you can do that is more important than voting. No donation, or signs on your lawn, or petitions can be as important as voting — and getting everyone you know to do the same.

Don’t let your nation slide away so your grandchildren can’t remember this country was ever a democracy. That is exactly what is going to happen. I’ll be gone by then, but how will you feel about it? That you were too self-involved to bother and let your government slide away?

USA.org.

Do it now. There’s nothing more important.

DRIFTING ALONG WITH THE GOOD GUYS – Marilyn Armstrong

DRIFTING ALONG

I am retired which is, by definition, at least a little bit adrift. This is a good thing and the real reason we retire. After a life of deadlines and commuting, some drifting seems like a pretty good idea. So here I am. Just drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweed … with memories of those great cowboy movies of childhood.

Hi Roy! Hi Trigger! Hey, Bullet! Hope y’all are doing well. I miss you. All of you. You were the good guys. We trusted you. Where are you now, when we need you?

ODDBALLS FROM AN ODDBALL – Garry Armstrong

Kammie’s Oddball Challenge 9/20/18

Odd Ball Photos are those great photos that you take which really don’t seem to fit into a common category. We’ve all taken and like them because we just can’t hit delete. If you have any, this challenge is for you.

Oddball: noun a person or thing that is atypical, bizarre, eccentric, or nonconforming; adjective – whimsically free-spirited; eccentric; atypical

How It Works?

This Odd Ball Challenge is not topic-related. Feel free to add any photos or artwork that fits into the category. Be creative and challenge yourself. Hopefully, you’ll find your creative eye will be expanded. ENJOY and have FUN.