Dear Inspiration,

“Now I know I haven’t really tried to hang out with you lately, but that totally doesn’t mean we can’t still be really close best of bestest friends. On my time table. You know, when it’s convenient and I’m not busy working or running errands. Oh? That doesn’t work for you? You only want to visit when I’m driving with no paper and pen available or meeting with my boss about upcoming events? Well gosh, I guess I should be used to that by now.”

The above rant was brought to you by the letter F, for frustrating. It seems like lately, the only times I want to write are the times I can’t because of adult obligations – gotta pay that rent, friend – and when I sit down at the dusty laptop, I discover that the creative well has run well and truly dry. So this month, we’re going to rely on an old standby exercise to force bizarro thinking and associations:

Theme: Galumphing – Athlete, Temple, Bottle
(Respectively 5,9,3 from our June Creativity Session)

Structure: Prose
(‘Cause Boom, I want a story and you, in your kind and giving soulful way, are going to tell it to me)

I figure this month’s theme and structure will take us to a more whimsical place. Last month, especially with a theme like Loneliness, was rife with passive aggression and aggressive passion forced away. Trivial Hostilities tells of a common occurrence in the lives of those who like to discuss their opinions in public locations. I don’t know if I’m obnoxious or what, but I enjoy talking about serious and non serious issues that some claim are intrusive. Continuing with the letter of the day, I think it’s frustrating when people get defensive over casual conversation and the like. I never want to take freedom of speech or freedom of thought for granted, and I have to assume Stevie is sitting right there with me in our boat of annoying people in the pursuit of building that net.
For my own entry, I spoke of retreating to emotional safe haven, seeing the effort of walking away from a bad situation as a battle. It hurts to leave behind something you know is worth fighting for, because you know even more so, that it’s wrong.

Alrighty, that’s enough introspection and it’s time for me to go to work.

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– Jessie Gutierrez