midnightpoet

Doug, I'm right there with you on that. That's kinda where that little rant stemmed from. I'm so tired of hearing 'everything happens for a reason', as though that should make me feel better about the bad things that happen in my life. People are also quite fond of telling me 'god will never give you more than you can handle' or 'god never closes one door without opening another'. I think people need to take their cliches and shove em somewhere. Before I butchered my story, there was a bit more of a rant on the whole 'everything happens for a reason', but I had to cut that out to fit the word count.

Doug

Yeah, you and I could both write several miles of pages. I just love "rants". lol.

Qsilv

I love rants too... especially my own, of course. I do try to curtail them, or at least grease their passage with Socratic logic and/or at least a sort of well-bred subtlety. Doesn't always work. But it means I do appreciate yours (all of you).

Marius - you're amazing. Or maybe just bone deep kind. I've had a couple of those days where you get to wondering about the phase of the moon or whether someone's slipped something in the water around here. People have been flat out irrational and stuff comes up that is as weird and distasteful as anything written in this forum. Ok, fine, it all happens... but... in clumps? Jeeez.

Midnight --and Doug too... fwiw, my personal take on fate is "things happen, but nothing that happens matters AS MUCH as what you do about it".

You might find it interesting to consider a religious stance, however, that distinguishes between pre-destination and pre-ordination. Destiny/fate stuff does indeed remove all blame (and thus also all credit) from the individual; we're all just puppets on a roller-coaster ride. Ordaining a future for us simply earmarks likelihoods, slots for which we're particularly well-suited; we have free choice --and responsibility.

;>

giraffe

Here's my cliche. You create your own reality. What do you think we should do in our next life? Maybe we could be a bunch of ladies in the same brothel in say, Singapore. The competition would be fierce. Or climbing Mt. Everest? Or inmates in a mental institution and Midnight is the Nurse Rachet? Our tongues are so swollen from the meds we have to write messages to each other. I like that one.

Shanley

309 words exactly including title; dis-res-pect-ful ...hope that does it for the tricky word

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EightH

Grandiose representation. Flawless technique. Emblematic style. Oh no, no more! No more wasting time. Got to measure up to him. Got to upgrade myself. No more standing at the fate’s mercy. This time it’s going to be big. It’s going to be mind blowing. Dramatic, yet subtle. Sarcastic. And yes, disrespectful! My last piece of sobriety, mixed with overflowing ambition, sinking to the bottom of all this disgrace. Better to take a stand and gladly fall on the battlefield, than to gaze at his number. And what a number! Through my eyes, he does nothing. And I do mean nothing. Through my ears, he only breaks the silence with words of emptiness. Fake dreams, dressed in great illusions. To my skin, it’s a torture. Starting with that thing he’s wearing around his neck. What’s that anyway? A beggar’s scarf? An undersized Arabian carpet ? Or maybe one more fake dream! Now, that must be jealousy speaking . I laugh at my own thoughts. Never seen a dumb devil, but he is pretty close to such a thing. Their minds are captured by his delusional speech. Their eyes mirror stupidity and blanks nobody can fill now. Their hands up in the air, swinging from one foot to the other. No. Who am I fooling now? It can’t be me. It can’t be me who is doing it all wrong. Their fascination defeats my ambition. Their mesmerized faces got me crawling now. What’s left for me? No word can make a difference. No expression will even reach their brains. I disconnect my feelings from the whole show. Just too much for me. My guts ache, my head explodes! What was I thinking? That’s not a crowd. That’s a forest! A forest of soulless people who fail to enfranchise my spirit. It only grates my dreams and leaves me with H-Eight!

marius

Ahhh Doug, you are a sweetheart! Know that's not how your story would have ended so thanks for humoring me. You are FUNNY too - comment to sweet ladyhwin! [Note to lady: if that poem was sucking up, good for you. I LOVE your poem. Most charming and welcome!]

Doug and midnightpoet, love your 'rant' about this trio: 'everything happens for a reason,' 'god will never give you more than you can handle' and 'god never closes one door without opening another.'

Yeah, those three have felt irritating at times because really, when you're lying on the side of the road and your right arm is ten feet away, the last thing you want to hear is that things happen for reasons. Luckily marius has wicked friends who offered 'translations' for those well-intentioned sayings:

Everything happens for a season, it's just that some seasons are WAY too long.
God will never give you more than you can candle. No one knows what that means.
God might open a door but if you're in the dark, hard to find it.

... but the translations marius actually found helpful:

'Everything happens for a reason' means no one knows why you have to go through this but if YOU can create a good reason for it, you'd sure be helping the rest of us.

'God will never give you more than you can handle' means you ARE a Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, Odysseus ... at least in terms of not being excluded from impossible difficulties. (After-all, why should the most difficult circumstances be given only to the famous?) Yes, it's awful but at least you're in good company.

'God never closes one door without opening one' means the door may be only two by six inches, but at least it's a door.' ... and maybe Alice can help you change sizes to get through. : )

Now feeling like I've simply repeated those trite comments that feel so hollow when one is hurting, but seriously, those translations helped. Whenever marius hears those sayings she tells self, "Wow, they are saying they love me because really, what can you say when someone you love is hurting?" : )

marius

PS to ladyhwin ... I was kidding about the sucking up. Didn't think for ONE second that you were doing that. Thought you were expressing joy!

marius

Shanley, very nice to see you in ThinkWrite! I'm need sleep and will have to read your piece again tomorrow cause, um, erm ... not sure I get it. All I got is a devil deluding others and the one who resists ends up with hate, in which case ... the devil wins? ?? (Grins cause not saying you weren't clear, am saying I am dull and very much needing dreamland.)

Good night all! : )

giraffe

Wow, Shanley. You left so much open for interpretation. I got either a minister who Mesmerizes his congregation or a 'flash in the pan' rock star. Maybe just some guy at a party. Whoever he is, he's kinda shallow 'cause dumb devils are rare. It's like really seeing someone for who they aren't. I enjoyed it.

Shanley

thank you , Giraffe. Just what I meant: to leave the plot aside and focus on characters, yet not revealing anything significant. Just make you live with them. And yes, you found the key description of the character.

Qsilv

yesss.... Shanley, a stage-y rock star stuck in my mind there almost immediately and I kept trying to think of other possibilities (thanks Giraffe... preacher works extraordinarily well) til it finally dawned on me that that wasn't what mattered... the characters' quality did!

Qsilv

Someone once gave me a booklet showing how you could substitute "Life" for "God" in pretty much every sentence.

It works shockingly well.

Shanley

I never got one of those booklets, but experience taught me fascination can substitute any respect and even reasoning. From rock concerts, congregations to political 'shows' (that was the source of inspiration, although it does not have any relevance here) you will find this 'devilish' ability of washing brains. That's what the H-Eight was 'aimed ' at. The defeated spirit of somebody reading right through the show. My demons are rarely about anything religious as a matter of fact.

Shanley

Surely, most f the things I said should've been easy to catch from the text, so if they weren't, it means it's going to take much more practice on writing for me. I only wish I had the time for it!

giraffe

I don't think your message was lost on this crowd. We all know dumb devils and smart ones too. Glad to see you writing again.

giraffe

BTW, Shanley. Was H-eight and Eight-H just a letter play, or something more? Dragon ended a story with the simple word "emblem" because it didn't fit anywhere in her story. Eight could signify # of shows or productions or inches or feet tall. Height? That may have been the confusing part. Eighth?

Shanley

Thank you, Giraffe. Feels nice to be welcome. And yes, I did sense that most of Tw-ers here are experienced readers and take the time to enjoy and study stories on TW.
To clear the confussion: eighth number on the show. Q allowed not using exactly the same form of the words and I couldn't resist the letter play, especially since 'height' as one word takes our mind to something grandiose ( ), to integrity, to ideals. So there's the contrast: writing it to make you think of one thing, and make it read as Hate to set the reader back to the story's path. (I enjoy letter play because it make you think more than one thing at once).

Qsilv

...I *love* that! pff... and people accuse ME of tangling things...

(offers a whole bowlful of gold-wrapped darkest chocolate truffles to Shanley) ;>

Shanley

Thank you, Q. (must say I do not miss a chance to read some works on TW, whenever i have some spare time and I remember a very clear thinking and a beautiful effort put in a certain poem. I sneak in here a lot, but lately even keeping up with pics and comments has become an impossible mission)

giraffe

Last one this round. 309

Outer space is my home away from home. Soon it will be my only home. For the last eight months I've been preparing my environment and my family and my own soul to accept this fate. It will be a long, lonely journey. I have to accept isolation since I'll never see another human forever. Now it's time.

Dear Mom,

Every time I gaze into the grandiose forest or look at the sea at night, I am saying goodbye. Farewell Earth. Bye Mom. I know you'll miss me but I had no choice. You didn't either, really. When they handed you the Emblem of Forgiveness in exchange for your Emblem of Freedom, you gladly took it. Not your fault, Mom. Your only option was to take the evil Emblem of Self Acceptance.

I don't blame you for having me. They did, but I don't. Please keep that in mind whenever you think of me hurdling through space at velocities you wouldn't understand. At least you won't be alone and I'll still have my individuality. You tought me that flawlessly. And ever since you died, I've felt lost and alone anyway. What's another 40 years in a space capsule?

They'll be here in a few minutes. You probably don't get emails where you are, but I'll just send this to myself and maybe you'll feel it. If you see Dad, tell him I'm still kickin'. He'll know what I mean. His mom always said it in a grating voice to make us laugh. It's like our in-joke.

Space will be fun. They call it punishment, but I'll learn to enjoy it. I had to trade my Emblem of Desire for the Emblem of Disenfranchisement. I've got my feeding tubes and excrement catheters hooked up.

And "Here comes Johnny!" Gotta go. Love, Billy (sent)

It's weird out here. No windows - no doors.