Writer's Club: 80's fashion...

So, the question today is: if I cold keep a fashion style from the 80's it would be...The short, unrealistic answer is I love the eighties & I'd keep it all, but the reality is  that there are things that I actually love & many things that I would want to go away forever. I dislike eighties shoulder pads, for instance, those huge linebacker things that swallowed your neck &  were completely out of proportion to the human form. Great, if they're a piece of sports equipment, not so great for professional, business attire. Power shoulders, yikes & they used to put these in everything, even really lightweight tops, a terrible combination. So, I was never a fan of the "Dynasty" look.

I did love the contrasts, the idea that you could throw out the rules. You could wear combat boots with skirts or a motorcycle jacket with a lacy top. Madonna was wearing bra tops out in the open. Slips were worn as dresses & Doc Marten's were being worn with pretty skirts. There were contrasts, but it was still all about the balance. People had Mohawks & safety pins. Torn jeans & slashed tees weren't being thrown away, but were sought after. So sought after that manufacturers were pre tearing, pre fading. The difference between worn in & real street fashion & the pre made kind was easy to spot. No matter what they did or how much they charged, they just couldn't match what was going on in the street. 

If I could keep anything from the eighties or have anything come back, it would be the street fashion & the sense of change, of balance in contrasts, the good, bad & ugly all in one glorious mix.  SAM

Writer's Club: Mortal Enemies

Spider to the Fly bag by samsstuff

This week the question was to describe your mortal enemy & why you hate them. I chose this prompt to highlight an unusual  philosophy of mine: I don't actually hate anyone. How can this be? Doesn't everyone hate at one point or another? Yes, maybe, but...There's always a but, isn't there? Again, maybe. I  will say that there are certain individual actions that I am not fond, political posturing, lies told behind the back, harmful talk that once done, can't be undone. My dislike could be possibly be called hate, but a hate of action, not of an individual.
So, who is my mortal enemy? If I had to name someone, it would be myself, but even then, I wouldn't say I hate myself. I only say this in that I can get in my own way, like we all get in our own way, from time to time. We don't always know how to pick the right battles or when to say the right thing, to make things happen in our lives or when to help out others.  Sometimes we run possibilities over & over again until we've missed the opportunity to act. We become our own nemesis, a stumbling block to the perfect life we might otherwise have and this is why I say that I'm my own worst enemy. The upside of this, though is the opportunity to learn & that makes us our own best friend. If things were perfect the first time, every time, we wouldn't grow, we'd stagnate & life would ultimately be pretty boring, wouldn't it?
Have you ever seen the movie "Unbreakable"? I love it, but then I love comic books, though not usually the super hero variety. In the film Bruce Willis plays the unbreakable one. No matter what happens, he survives. His life is far from perfect. His marriage is falling apart, he's losing his job, despite having the ability to survive any physical disaster. His nemesis, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is the opposite. He can barely walk across the street without breaking bones. He is a successful businessman, he has a mother who loved him, but he becomes obsessed with learning how the Bruce Willis character survives so easily, when he is so fragile. It's kind of a super hero/ super villain juxtaposition, in a way that only  really happens in comic books, but told in a very realistic manner. They become friends & they become enemies. It's a fascinating study. In reality, I think we're all a mixture of these extreme characters, fragile & strong, enemy & friend, kind of all & none of the above.
What do you think? Do you have someone you hate? Do you have a mortal enemy? A frienemy? Someone who has been both friend & enemy, at some point? Do you think we can be superhero/nemesis even to ourselves? All interesting questions...SAM

Writer's Club: Changing the World

Thinking by Shelley McElhiney

The question this week is: If you had the means to change one thing about the world, what would it be?

My answer is both simple & complex, in basic terms, if I could change the world, I'd make it so that people would listen to each other. Everyone, always & when I say listen, I mean truly listen, actually hearing & processing what another person has to say. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Often people will ask questions of each other without truly listening for an answer. Why bother with asking if you're just going to assume an answer anyway. Just skip the whole question part, it's an empty shell, a pretense to what you were going to do or think, regardless of the real answer. 
People would be much happier, there would be less confusion, miscommunication  & hurt feelings if we were all better listeners. Strife would be less prevalent, maybe there would even be fewer wars, if we all regularly used our  innate ability to  listen to & process the information that  surrounds us. Maybe this has become the issue. We are surrounded by or bombarded with constant bits of information. We've shut down against everything, as a kind of defense mechanism. We've shut down too much & its become a habit. Now I'm not saying we have to absorb everything, that would be an opposite extreme, we don't have to absorb advertising, for instance, we can take or leave TV & games, as we please. They don't have to penetrate the surface of our being, but we should listen to each other & that's where it gets complicated.
So, in short, if I could change anything about the world, I would give everyone back the ability to listen to & process each other & put it into widespread, universal use. 


What about you? If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? SAM

Broken Hearts & the Writer's Club

This weeks prompt: describe the events that led to the first time your heart got broken.

The Arizona Desert by me

So, the first time I got my heart broken...Hmm. I guess it wold be my junior year of high school. He was a little younger than me & my first boyfriend. I hadn't dated anyone before, not really sure why. I've never been very good at picking up 'signals' & unless someone just outright stated the obvious, I didn't see the attraction. I've never been good at the whole flirting thing & that's one of the major reasons why. So anyway, he was the first guy to ever ask me out. We  didn't date very long, we weren't really right for each other & his family would have preferred that I date his brother, who was my age & with whom, I eventually went to the only prom I ever went to. 
I'm not really sure what happened in either case. My first boyfriend & I dated about 2 months. I think I cried for 2 weeks straight & that was the end of that. I, like most teens, thought my life was over & that I'd never find anyone again. He moved on, fairly soon after & started dating a girl that had moved to our area, from Australia. I thought she was prettier than me. Maybe, maybe not. She did have beautiful super long golden honey color hair. I think I was more jealous that she was from Australia than anything else. I'd never been there, still haven't made it there, but I'd like to someday...
After about two weeks, I realized that he really wasn't right for me  & eventually I did go out, once, with his brother, to the junior prom. Prom night was all the cheesy things you think of, bad decorations, nobody dancing, everybody in clothes they felt uncomfortable in. I had a pink & blue floral Gunne Sax dress &  feathered Farrah hair (can you guess the era?) He had to match, so he had a light blue tux. I think it was polyester, but maybe I'm just imaging that part. I don't even think they had the infamous spiked punch. A few days (maybe it was weeks) later, we got the photos back. He told me I should get mine, before they got rid of them & then he said something else, but I never really heard it, so I never knew what it was. I think I just nodded or something & that was the end of that. Maybe I should have asked him what he said. I did like him more, maybe than his brother. He was definitely more like me. I never did ask, though. Again, I felt like I was destined to never find 'love.' again, like most teens...I didn't cry for two weeks, this time. 
Things do work out. It's not the end of the world. First love rarely is last love or only love, sometimes it's not even love at all. Sometimes it works out, but in the vast majority of cases, it's a later love that is 'the one.' That's my story, anyway. SAM