Third Sunday Write Revealed Now to End January; New “Mystery” Acceptance on 27th

Cold weather slows me down, I think. In any event here are two items, both late, to close the first month of the New Year out.

For the first: The Bloomington Writers Guild’s “3rd Sunday Write” had skipped December, given Christmas week, but for January was right on time, on the 16th. But I, being late, didn’t go to it until nine days after, on the 25th, and then only now am I reporting it here. January 30. The prompts this time included quotes from poets, bell hooks first with “THERE CAN BE NO LOVE WITHOUT JUSTICE” (caps and lower case as given here), and second Joan Didon with “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” There was a third quotation plus a fourth topic, to make a “found” poem with more quotes from the three, but I was content to combine the first two.

Thus: A CONUNDRUM (prompts 1 and 2)

There can be no love without justice. But does that not contain its own contradiction? Justice is truth. But to keep love alive, do we not minimize our loved one’s faults, magnify what we find good? In our own minds, that is — one can, externally, still be realistic, but winning the game involves our own reactions. And that is not justice.

Reflect: Even good manners involve some injustice. To treat as deserving those we know are not so. How much more, then, to not just be polite, but to praise, to embellish, to LOVE? Without nudgings of this sort, even in small matters, telling ourselves stories, not the bare truth. Both large and petty. Finding ways to excuse, more ways to cherish, to make these tales our truths, passing that on as such to the ones we love, even if in a strict courtroom sense it’s an arrant injustice!

For is not love life itself?

And so, in justice, we tell ourselves stories in order to live.

I would need to add that there seems to be a falling off over the past few months of interest in Third Sunday Write, in particular this month with only one other, Tonia Matthew, taking up the full challenge. For myself I hope fellow Guild members will perk up again as the year progresses, this being perhaps the only monthly “meeting” that — for me — actually works better with COVID restrictions as opposed to live. The ability, for instance, to pick the prompt(s) that best speak to one, rather than putting down something for all even when unmoved, as well as to wait until a quiet time sometimes to start (not to mention to “cheat” by taking a little more time as needed, though even with the face to face meetings what you might get here would still be after editing — or, on a “bad” month, maybe nothing at all), is one that fits well.

Then a quick second item: Thursday, January 27, has brought my first story acceptance for 2022 (other postings this month have been for releases, appearances, payments, etc., but with actual acceptances in December or before). But there is a catch. This is also for a new publication hoped to premiere in May, but to quote the editor/publisher (anonymously for now), “[u]ntil then, please keep the title a secret.”

So stay tuned till spring, when all things may catch up.