Writing is... easy?

The second crusader challenge has been posted and here are the guidelines: 
Write a flash fiction story (in any format) in 100 words or less, excluding the title. Begin the story with the words, “The goldfish bowl teetered” These four words will be included in the word count. 

The Writer

The goldfish bowl teeters as I lean forward to toss the page into the chasm between houses that stand back to back against the onslaught of weather. Falling back into the chair, I begin my opus -60 a fifth time. I palm the stem that sits at hand. Wine washes down a sob. Murmuring quietly "not writer. Hack!" I push myself away from the table. Catching on the corner of the chair I tip… teeter-totter… steady myself before avalanching off the balcony and tilt toward the nearby Jacuzzi, falling gracelessly into the womb warmth of the water. 

******************* 

'Death and Politics' and a little spring cleaning

I wanted my heading to reflect the changing season but since we're not really green here yet and the snow is still melting in the foothills as you see from this picture taken on a hike on Saturday (there was more snow elsewhere but I wasn't really into taking pictures of snow!)...

In anticipation, I've jumped ahead to summer in all it's glory. Hope it warms you up as much as it does me!

I want to thank Talei at Musings of an Aspiring Scribe for the 'Stylish Blogger' award she honored me with last week! I have also been remiss in thanking Alberta at Alberta's Sefuty Chronicles for the 'One Lovely Blog' award and JYS at A Writerly Pensheep for 'The Stylish Blogger award. It was a big week for me on the award front and I appreciate the honors that were bestowed. Check all of these lady's blogs out and see what wonderful sites they have! Thanks again for the awards!!! 

Small update: I mentioned that I applied for a new position at work the week before last. I am still waiting for a call about the interview, but I will have one as it is guaranteed if you're already an employee. (Sounds good but it feels a little like an obligation date.) So I wait!!! While I am talking about my job, things have picked up a bit and I am having a harder time blogging during down time (what down time? Is the question that I am beginning to ask) and while I have never had a set schedule for writing, I've been posting about 3 times a week. With less time, I am not sure I can post that often and still have the evenings to write. Of course writing is the priority as you can understand I am sure!!! I am still checking in on YOUR blogs wherever possible and commenting when I have time.

I missed posting my WIP last Sunday so I've posted it below. If you need/want to catch up, you can read the previous pages below and for the full document click on the tabs at the top!

Relative State
_____________________________________________________

Blinding sunlight penetrates the orbital septum, Excalibur to the brain. I flinch and burrow my head in down layers.

It was her.

I start as a door squawks complaint. Was she alive? Shuffling footsteps close in. Was she here? I rise and stumble to the door, wary of the ghost-filled hallway. Where was she? A flutter at the window. What was it? storage? for what? The unsettled calm of the spruce floor threatens collapse. Could I have gotten her out? Did they know who I was? I should have gotten her out. What does it mean? The vibrant hush of the house unnerves. . .

Whose voice had I heard?

What were th—

            Caskets?

My mind spins the exquisite, chaotic mathematics of a spider’s web with perplexities and fear.

“Good morning.”

“Roo-ro-roof”

[Large dog bounds into room]

“Ree-oww-err”

[Cat leaps, flips, clings to rafter, hair on end, eyes bulging]

[Granny enters, shoos dog outside]

“Now, now, out you go.”

[laugh track]

Thettle down Thylvester. Back to earth.

“Sleep well?” The eyes greeting mine were gentle but devoid … void. He seems insensible to my panic, words spoken to express polite but perfunctory interest in my wellbeing. My aunt’s grieving husband bumbles down the hall and descends groaning steps before I can reply.

I stare at my hands, the imprint of the cool metal tattooed on nerve endings. Had I slept? Had it been a dream?  The sudden sting at my little toe as I step onto the cool tile of the bathroom floor recalls the nip of rocks. Not state’s evidence…

More, I need more…

I strip and cleanse myself under the tepid trickle that had become a joke for our little trio. (“Shower? more like a sprinkle… well, really a tinkle. Gives “taking a pee” a whole new meaning.” Lou’s humor was… (is!) quirky, catching her audience off guard and spreading her cachinnations like a yawn. The most ecclesiastically austere beldam was heard to chortle when her rollicking laughter beach-balled around the room.) Distracted and disturbed, I mindlessly scrub and towel off, voluptuous ambiance become function. Murmured consolations drift toward me and I hover at the top of the stairs to drop eaves, unconcerned with the fate of the curious cat.

“Too coincidental…” the discernibly feminine voice is shrill, anxious to be heard. The controlled response in low baritone reveals my uncle’s patience although his words are too quiet for distinction. 

“I don’t believe it…” words topple out, unequivocally strident, interrupted only by muffled responses. “ludicrous! I don’t care what he says… He’s an idiot… the whole town knows… You’re cra--… you can’t allow him to file… There has to be something… Damn it, David! I can’t believe you! You’re… you can’t accept this… There has to be a better explanation… aliens?… Well, it’s no coincidence… not hysterical… I know this isn’t X-Files… three people are missing… sorry! I’m very upset, not trying to upset you…”

The emotional avalanche loses its momentum, whiteout settling to troubled calm. Assurances, directives and solace filter up the landing unheard, buried beneath a rock slide of mental reverb.

Three people missing …

Missing people…

three maybe.      

Explanation! Missing people, town knows.               

They know!                             

Explanation for missing people, no coincidence.                                

Where are they?                   

Sheriff hadn’t mentioned . . .                   

you have to connect . . .

one, two, three…    

not likely isolated, no body found        

                      witnesses from a distance,                  

other people missing . . .

                                     four, five . . .     

No time for fineries … yesterday‘s wadded wardrobe.                      

Missing people.

Three!                 

More surprising if it isn’t connected . . .

sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.  

Oh, look it’s an elephant in the room.

Find a pencil, idiot!

She might be leaving. Downstairs. Move.

Three people missing …

no one connecting…

connected …

connect…”

I reach the bottom stair, a hoarsy whistle escaping, “What people are missing? three? Why didn’t you… this is important, don’t you think?”  questions bubble to my lips, stilled by the clicking latch. The empty room yawns at me lazily.

Apparently not…

The Titanic

The story of the Titanic is as familiar to the modern storyteller as is 'Cinderella' or 'Sleeping Beauty': Oversized ship heads off on voyage to meet it's destiny with an ice berg whilst unsuspecting passengers enjoy the luxury of the liner. The story has become such an important part of our cultural lore that one might even say that it is nearly locked in mythos.


But the realities of the Titanic are not nearly as romantic as Hollywood would like us to buy into (and buy and buy again!) and the sad truth that many of the deaths could have been prevented if safety protocols had been followed has a familiar ringtone- the all too familiar sound of money in pockets while the urgency for safety is ignored because of the extra cost. But it's not a recounting of the frozen bodies or the drama of men left standing on the deck as women and children are bundled into the too few lifeboats or the multiple mistakes that led to the disaster that causes me to reflect on the Titanic. It is actually the allegory of the Titanic that continues to be reenacted like the nightmare on Elm Street that I wish to reflect on.


Which brings me to Japan...


The tragedy of the earthquake and ensuing tsunami were simply that: a tragedy. And while such naturally occurring tragedies cannot be stopped by anything that humans can do*, there is the reality that different choices in multiple areas would have made the calamity less catastrophic. In fact, there were so many mistakes that my head swims with frustration, building on a fault line, using cheap materials, etc.


Lest you think that I am placing the blame for the earthquake and tsunami at the feet of humankind, let me reiterate: the earthquake and the tsunami were a horrible tragedy. I am not trying to lay the blame for the shifting of continents at the feet of humans or global warming. But surely no one in their sanest mind can possibly look at the disaster with the Nuclear plants in Japan and say that this horrible event wasn't made infinitely worse by our desire and, indeed, need (like a junkie in need of a fix of heroine) for cheap energy- a need so strong that we will harness a resource that we are not capable of controlling once nature's ferocity is loosed upon it. In a thought provoking article on the Guardian UK, Bill McKibben writes,

Global warming didn't cause the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Miyagi coast, but global warming daily is shrinking the leeway on which civilisation everywhere depends. Consider: sea levels have begun to rise. We're seeing record temperatures that depress harvests – the amount of grain per capita on the planet has been falling for years. Because warm air holds more water vapour than cold, the chance of severe flooding keeps going up and in the last year countries from Pakistan to Australia have recently ended up on the wrong side of those odds. 

Those changes steadily eat away at that safety margin. With less food stored in our warehouses, each harvest becomes critical. With each massive flood, we have to spend more money rebuilding what was there before: there are still as many as 4 million homeless from Pakistan's floods, which means "development" has given way to "getting a tarp over your head". Even rich countries face this trouble: Australia cut much of its budget for renewable energy to help pay the recovery bill for soggy Queensland. Warmer temperatures are helping dengue fever spread; treating one case can use up the annual health budget for a dozen people in some Asian nation, meaning that much less for immunisations or nutrition. Just the increasing cost of insurance can be a big drag on economies: a study by Harvard and Swiss Re found that even in rich nations such as the US, larger and more frequent storms could "overwhelm adaptive capacities", rendering "large areas and sectors uninsurable". The bottom line was that, "in effect, parts of developed countries would experience developing nation conditions for prolonged periods".

That we continue to argue about the reality of global warming when we see the results of eroded shorelines and rising sea-levels all around us is baffling and a bit scandalous to me. In a recent conversation with a co-worker, (a republican and conservative christian) she told me she did not deny climate change but sees it as the earth's natural cycle and, as she sees it, is not so "arrogant" to believe that humans could affect nature in such a huge way. To further discussion I agreed, the earth does indeed have climate cycles BUT the changes that are now occurring are occurring much faster than ever before and, I added, we have improved the earth's ozone layer with many of the regulations we have put in place. If we can improve part of what is causing the problem then the obvious connection is that people can cause climate change. To this statement she had no response. We had reached the heavy metal doors of her mind and they were securely locked.


And it is this dead end, on a societal level, which can cause me to despair when I consider the disaster in Japan. We amble on, burning fossil fuels and using the resources of our planet with pell mell abandon as though there were an unlimited supply. And when we do take these limits seriously, instead of creating real clean solutions (and I am not talking about "clean" coal.. as if!) or cutting back on the amount of oil we burn through (why is it so hard to get people to stop using plastic bags?), we accept short term, high cost "solutions" like building Nuclear facilities to fill up our need for cheap energy that, in the end, creates more chaos. 


But, my purpose is not to write an essay on global warming. There are many scientists more equipped than I to blog on the subject. My purpose is to merely observe that we are on a great big ship headed straight toward an iceberg. We know it's out there and we know we can do something about it but the will to change seems to be, to say the least, lacking.


So I hear you saying, But I am just one person! I try to ride the bus and it doesn't get me where I need to go! I recycle!!! What more can I do??? Even my brain reacts like this as I think about the need for a real change so I understand if your protests are similar. The reality is that we aren't going to change the world with baby steps toward a greener planet as individuals. What is needed is a genuine shift in how we do business on a daily basis and this isn't going to happen in today's political climate.  

There are different, real things That could be done, actually, but on an individual level it will take some work... we have to pay more attention to our political stage as painful as that is. It is simply too important to vote only on what is in an individual's best interest ("it's the economy, stupid"). Here is an example of what we should be supporting through our vote (although many are needed and should be brought to the table): We need to be push our politicians to support public transportation with tax dollars. It should be more affordable and available for those that live in big cities. In cities that are debating over light rail systems, the politicians should be nudged- okay, shoved into getting more efficient systems going (and they still need to be affordable!) so that people can drive less. Less driving=less oil used. Less oil used means we don't need to build more nuclear facilities because we won't be depleting as much oil with cars...again, this is just a simple example but it does require work because our politicians are not voting in the best interest of the population at large and the media is not helping us in making informed decisions about our politicians. 


In an article in Mother Jones, Kevin Drum exposes how politician's vote in the best interest of the wealthiest 1% of our population nearly every time. And while the article is primarily concerned with Wisconsin and the current political struggle with the unions there, the concluding message is a call to all citizens who are concerned about the well being of the ship we're on and watching out for the icebergs and the too few lifeboats. So this is what I will leave you with today... 

"If the left ever wants to regain the vigor that powered earlier eras of liberal reform, it needs to rebuild the infrastructure of economic populism that we've ignored for too long. Figuring out how to do that is the central task of the new decade."   

(Oh and I am looking forward to comments/discussion on this!)

*I am not blaming global warming for earthquakes, but there is some discussion among scientists that warmer subterranean waters and rising sea levels may affect earthquakes. For more information read this.  

Act of God*

While shooting the show in August 1992, the Florida Keys were under a Hurricane warning and cast and crew of 'Key West' (at least those that had sense) were hurriedly evacuated. Hurricane Andrew ultimately missed the island itself but the hurricane hit Homestead, Florida (150 miles north of the small island) and southwest Louisiana, killing 61, injuring 10,375 and causing over 1 billion dollars in damages. It was a devastating event for the modern U.S. shoreline (that is until Hurricane Katrina taught us a new level of devastation) and as few as 10 years ago, the gateway to the Keys was still recuperating from the battering they took in the wee hours on the 24th of August. The event was so moving to the writers of the show that it was quickly written into the show's first season allowing their characters to move through the drama they'd personally experienced.

At the epicenter of our drama, Seamus, our New Jersey hero, is excited about the possibility of a little excitement on the island when news of the hurricane is first broadcast. He dons toga and "garland" (really just a scarf of some sort) and parties his way around the island until the seriousness of the situation begins to sink in. Maybe it was time to leave, he waffles as he frantically searches for his clothes. What's your panic, man? His Rastafarian friend soothes him, it's just a little wind. His emotions are tossed like the waves... should he go?... should he stay? Hemingway would stay to experience the full gamut of emotions and life. Yes, but Tennessee Williams wold go and start on his next play. In a final attempt to evacuate he finds that he has waited too long and he is forced to wait out the storm in the ramshackle bar known as Gumbos with the rest of the islanders. As he sits in the candlelit room, surrounded by frightened and worried friends listening to the quiet pluckings of the nearby guitar, he ponders the mystery of nature, of death... of life, 

"That was the night I learned about my mortality. I looked around and realized that everyone in the room was going to die. Just maybe not tonight...but I did learn that we are all always at the station. And the trains are always leaving."    

 (To listen to the song and the final moments of this moving segment of the show, click on the picture to go to my Tumblr blog where audio of the show's final moments are posted.)

*I am an atheist. I do not believe that there is a god who had any hand in the events in Japan or in any other naturally occurring events in the world. While those who believe in god(s) would say that of course god would have no hand in any event like this, these same believers give that deity in the sky  credit when good things happen which is a nonsequitur to me (this was not always true- I grew to that understanding. I am not a knee-jerk atheist). I am no more prone to give a higher power credit for good things than I am to blame a higher power for the bad so the title of the post may be deceptive but the 'Key West' episode my quote is taken from this week has this title... thus, it is named.