The writers prompt

     At our last writers group meeting, we were asked to provide answers to a prompt. To be honest, I’ve never much cared for prompts – generally I find them restrictive. But this one was pretty good. So I present it to you – along with my responses – in the hope that it will invoke a similar posting from you.

     Question: Name ten things you have always wanted to do, and why you have not done them.

      1. I have always wanted to visit all 50 of the United States. I have ten to go. Along the same lines, I’ve always wanted to visit Prince Edward Island. It’s only a few clicks north of a state on my “to do” list, so why not?

     2. I have always wanted to ride an elephant. I had a chance some years ago, but my (then) wife thought it would be undignified. She is now history. Anybody know where I can find a really big saddle? (And of course … an elephant?)

     3. I have always wanted to fly a plane. Seriously. I took lessons until a physical exam revealed that I was cataleptic (translate: had fainting spells). At the time “they” decided that fainting was not a positive image thing for pilots. But that was years ago. Time, I think, to give it another shot. What’s the worst that can happen?

     4. I want to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature. I have accumulated a plethora of dust collectors over the years. It would be nice to win something that actually amounts to something. (The secret here is to write something that fits that criteria.)

     5. I want to visit Volgograd in Russia. The Russians I have known (not a true sampling, to be sure) have been both charming and melancholy in nature. As a student of history, the battle of Volgograd was the turning point of World War II. I would like the opportunity to study both, firsthand.

     6. I want to go into space – to travel from here to breakfast in a weightless condition – to suck globules of Tang as they drift by my snack plate, and watch the earth rise behind the moon.

     7. I want to spend more time with children. Their perception of life is refreshingly less jaded than my own. Along with that, I want to spend more time with the people I love and who love me right back. Along with that, I want to meet new people. I need fresh material.

     8. I want to ride in a rodeo parade again – to be a part of a mounted caravan, to smell polished leather and see the glint of silver roundels on traces. Later I want to take my favorite horse and wander deep into the desert in late Spring – one more time.

     9. I want to be an ex-president of the United States. Ex-presidents appear to garner respect simply by having survived being president. (My only desire to be a president would be because - as I understand it - the kitchen is open 24 hours a day, and I could have a hot fudge sundae at 3:30 in the morning if I wanted to, and that probably isn’t a good enough reason to want to be the president.)

     10. I want to love more, to cry more, to laugh more, to taste, touch, see and smell more, to become far more intimate with God and His imaginative creations.

j.