DISCUSSION THREAD -- September 2021 -- 75-Word Writing Challenge

Shrugs shoulders, what can I say? I'm a simple country parson and a lot of stuff flies right over my head.
 
@lostontheway .... At the countryside .... Even breaking unwritten rules might be more dangerous than what most would think.
 
Luiglin said:
Annoyed, just came to post my entry that I've been tweaking back and forth - unusual for me - when I spot the genre is not speculative fiction but Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Not sure why I'd convinced myself it to be the former, maybe the plot idea overtook me.

Double annoyed, there's no way I can twist it to match either one of those.

Back to the drawing board.
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Throw in a space port, warp field, switch the characters to martians.

SF is easy

Parson said:
Good point about rules vs. laws. My point is that most people feel as if rules/laws are bad. It seems that when we find a dumb rule or law (and they are not hard to find) we assume that all the rules/laws are the same, when in fact the vast majority of the rules have good and important reasons. How would you like to live in an area with no traffic laws, where everyone drove when, where, and how they felt like it? Any advanced human civilization is extremely dependent on rules/laws being almost universally obeyed.

As to this contest; I think you are right that stories about ignoring or bending rules are more "entertaining," because we like to highlight the unusual. But I do think that this comes at a cost. For example, a favorite home decorating plaque has the phrase: "Life Is Not Measured By the Number of Breaths We Take, But By the Moments That Take Our Breath Away." Now I find a great deal of truth in that, but I can't shake the feeling that by repeating this and trying to live our life by it, we find that we have undervalued the wonder and pure joy that comes from living each day which does not have one of those kind of moments in them. --- So I'd like to see some stories that lift up what a joy it is to follow the rules and how that makes life good and fulfilling.

Is that what you have in mind?
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Whoa there @Parson !!!

That's a bit deep and depressing (with capital Ds)

Or am I missing something and the saying is meant to be double edged.

Certainly a life is measured at THE moment that takes your breath away, but surely that completely ruins the uplifting sentiments and throws them on the bonfire.




Remember the song

Judy Collins "Both Sides Now" - Joni Mitchell

You don't have to be happy to enjoy life.
 
TheEndIsNigh said:
That's a bit deep and depressing (with capital Ds)

Or am I missing something and the saying is meant to be double edged.

Certainly a life is measured at THE moment that takes your breath away, but surely that completely ruins the uplifting sentiments and throws them on the bonfire.
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It was meant to be "Deep" but the opposite of "Depressing." I was not making any sort of comment about death. I was trying to comment on living. Some people chase experiences while failing to experience the deep pleasure of living in the here and now. This is especially true if you are blessed with people you love and/or meaningful work to do. It is truly terrific to have some of those moments that "take your breath away." I hope everyone has many of them in their life time. But a good life is what happens between those moments that take your breath away as well. If you live only for the Wow moments you will come to sing B.B. King's signature song. "The Thrill is Gone."

B.B. King still sends goose bumps up my spine.

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@G.T. .... Nox woz ere .... The rules of the jungle and the rules of the street are largely the same rules.

@Astro Pen .... Chainless .... Parson puzzles at the conundrum that "There is no rule in freedom, except that there are no rules."

@M. Robert Gibson .... Membership Rules for the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Barbarian Heroes .... If you live by your own rules, can you follow other rules?

@Perpetual Man .... Absolute Utopia .... Just rules well followed just opens the door to an absolute utopia.
 
Parson said:
It was meant to be "Deep" but the opposite of "Depressing." I was not making any sort of comment about death. I was trying to comment on living. Some people chase experiences while failing to experience the deep pleasure of living in the here and now. This is especially true if you are blessed with people you love and/or meaningful work to do. It is truly terrific to have some of those moments that "take your breath away." I hope everyone has many of them in their life time. But a good life is what happens between those moments that take your breath away as well. If you live only for the Wow moments you will come to sing B.B. King's signature song. "The Thrill is Gone."
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I didn't think your comment was depressing at all, Parson. If anything it's the opposite. I agree that you should try to derive meaning from the things that occupy your time, and it's abundantly clear what does that, because if you fill your time with meaningful things, the time flies, whereas drudgery causes the tick of the clock to become ever more dilatory. To be clear, I think there's a disparity between meaningfulness and happiness here; happiness is a fleeting emotion; it doesn't do to try and be happy all the time. It's impossible, and not very useful. Those American Founding Fathers were clever chaps; including in the Constitution the right to the pursuit of happiness is much more productive and meaningful than the right to happiness itself.

Having rules and structures is implicit in providing people with the framework to actively pursue that sense of meaning and happiness.

By the way, when I said the sacredness of some rules made me want to break them even more, I was only joshing. Well, sort of. I was referring to one very specific rule, but which is nonetheless incredibly important in a challenge where one is limited to only seventy-five words...

And yes, B.B. King is still the man. Have you heard the album he did with Eric Clapton towards the end of his life, Riding With The King? Tremendous stuff.
 
@Hugh .... Sheep .... It's in the explanation and not in the law itself where wisdom is found.
 
@Moonbat .... Untitled? .... A poem that shows the rules and the insight needed to follow them.
 
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