Blog Prompting in 2011

I thought I’d try an experiment in which I hit shuffle on my iPod and got a song title and then used the title as my blog prompt. So here’s what I got:

Stayin’ Alive by the BeeGees

Okay, I think it’s safe to say we all can appreciate this line:

“Live to see another day…” However, sadly the next few titles were useless and I realized the futility in attempting to make blogs from song titles. So hmmm, on to plan B. I found a website that helps to give you prompts. I like the idea of using this with reluctant young writers too.

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/writing/writing.prompts.html


Here was my first prompt:

Are there any family heirlooms in your possession? Tell about them and how you came to acquire them.


Giving too much meaning to objects is a sign of attachment, and attachment can lead to suffering, so it’s important to keep a balance of objects that remind you of people who have passed and the idea that nothing lasts forever, and all is impermanent.

That said, my heirloom possessions consist of a rocking chair, a book rack ( which had its own mention a few posts ago), tea cups, and my father’s genealogy books. The rocking chair was Grandma Pearl’s. I don’t know where it came from, but my father remembered being rocked in it by his great-grandmother in the 1940’s. Originally It had a velvet cushion, but when my grandmother passed the chair to me, my uncle claimed the cushion as some sort of consolation prize since he also remembered being rocked in the chair. The chair came into my possession fully in the 1990’s, and moved to my apartment in 2002. I bought some velvet material to make a cushion, but I never have. It wears a boring cushion from Pier One for the moment, until I finally sew the right one.

The tea cups hang on a rack that was also Grandma Pearl’s. They were something I enjoyed looking at as a child because they were colorful. I received the cups before I got the rack, so I never had anywhere to display them. Then a couple of years ago, we were at my grandmother’s house (after she died) and I saw that the rack was still there. So cups and racks are united again in my dining room.




Finally, I have my father’s generolgy books. He used to pour over them with such attention. He could tell you hevery possible connection to anyone with our last name. The books were written by a distant cousin who lived in California. This man had contect with my father and my dad gave him info that he used in his books. It reminds me of how much my father loved family history and I like having that legacy with me. I try to remember what he taught me about the connections, but I usually resort to saying. Oh yes he is related, our families probably cross in the 1700’s. And this is the truth. Having records that date back to 1066 is helpful in knowing that you are distantly related to someone like George Bush! LOL! But really it does help remind you that we are all connected.

For me, family heirlooms are just simple treasures that connect past to present.