My daughter and I struggle with perfectionism. That means we have a hard time getting our creative stuff out to the public. It is worse than that, actually. We struggle to get our creative stuff out of our own mind and bodies and into the physical, seeable, touchable, hearable, smellable universe. The blank page is the scariest thing known to ourkind. So I suggested that we send each other prompts. I send her a random photo I have taken, and she sends me a writing prompt (which started out as a sentence and quickly shrunk to one word prompts). Then we give ourselves about 20 minutes to illustrate/write, respectively, whatever comes out. If we get into flow or want to continue working on it later, we can, but we send each other that “shitty” first draft. As a further corrective exercise for my perfectionism, I will post my warm-ups here. The titles are the prompts that I received from my 23 year old daughter who is a Communication Design Student.
Warm-Ups
Give Them The Big Ten!
Dear Democrats, for the love of America, give them the Ten Commandments in the classroom! Then spend the time, effort and legal resources you would have spent on that fight to fight against the illegal seizure of our government, institutions, and, foremost, law abiding residents and civilians! I know, I know. Republicans’ insistence on displaying…
The Bikers of American Politics
Whenever I have tuned into American politics over the last ten years, I have felt like I am watching a car crash in slow motion from afar. I am an American who has spent 32 years outside of my passport country, so it sometimes feels like watching a remote reality show, unfortunate, but unrelated to…
The Barren Roots Rodeo
It was an odd time and place to have my eyes well up with tears, but what I was watching had been suddenly, inexplicably, transformed into a meaningful and encouraging exhortation offering solace directly to – or from- a deep and wounded place within me. But because I was surrounded by a whir and whishing…
It Takes One To Know One 