legend

MFFFC — How Hard Can This Be?

Fandango11 Comments
BERJAYA

I was not supposed to be driving the truck. But there I was, paws on the wheel, seat warm from the sun, the faint smell of jerky in the cupholder. All calling to me like destiny.

The humans told me they were just stepping out for a minute. A minute, huh? To me, a minute could be an instant or an eternity. I can’t friggin’ tell time. Anyway, I watched them disappear into the shop, leaving the window cracked and the keys dangling like a shiny dare. And I thought: How hard can this be?

At first, I only climbed into the driver’s seat to get a better view of the street. A dog’s gotta keep watch, you know. But then the steering wheel felt, well, powerful. Like a big round promise. I imagined rolling down the road, windows open, ears flapping, townsfolk pointing and saying, “Now that’s a dog who knows where he’s going.”

I didn’t actually start the truck. My paws aren’t built for that kind of precision. But I practiced the look. You know, the driver look. Chin up. Eyes forward. Serious. Responsible. The kind of dog who could haul lumber or deliver mail or rescue a stranded hiker with nothing but grit and a half-chewed tennis ball.

A kid walked by and did a double take. Good. Let the legend begin.

Just as I was perfecting my “I totally belong here” expression, the humans returned. They froze. I froze. I jump back into the rear seat and we all silently agreed never to speak of this again.

But between you and me? Next time they leave the keys in the ignition, I might just find out how hard it really is.

Written for Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. Photo credit: Rosalie Gdy @ Unsplash.

Cellpic Sunday — Arches and Dead Horses

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John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday, in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. He encourages us to participate in this cellphone photo prompt by creating our own CellPic Sunday post and linking it back to his post.

As I don’t have any recent cellpic photos that I’d classify as interesting, unusual, exotic, or erotic, I engaged the Wayback Machine to August 16, 2013.

On one of our cross country drives, one of the sites my wife and I wanted to check out was Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah. Arches National Park has the largest density of natural sandstone arches in the world. It is spectacular. Here are four photos taken in the early afternoon at Arches. The last one is called “The Three Sisters.” I wonder why.

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At the hotel we stayed at in Moab, one of the other guests suggested we check out Dead Horse Point State Park, which is not far from Arches National Park. So we did.

Dead Horse Point State Park, is essentially a 2,000-foot mesa overlooking the Colorado River. So after visiting Arches, we headed over to Dead Horse and these next four photos are from Dead Horse Point State Park at around 6:30 pm.

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By the way, Arches National got its name due to the many sandstone arches at the park. Duh! But aren’t you curious about how Dead Horse Point State Park got its name? Of course you are.

It’s a sad story, actually. According to legend, the park is so named because the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the others go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

Sorry to end this on such a sad note, but hey, life ain’t always butterflies and waterfalls, you know what I mean?

As usual, the photos used in this post have been resized (shrunk) to make them load more quickly and take up less space in my WordPress media folder.

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Legend

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D418BC10-533D-48B4-BCCC-DF74FAB03004He draws the biggest crowds. He surrounds himself with the best people. He knows the best words. Only he can fix what ails us.

He could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and still not lose a single supporter. He is loved by everyone, especially despots, dictators, and autocrats around the world. And he loves them back. He is the smarted, the richest, the greatest president that ever lived.

He’s a stable genius. He’s very intelligent. He has the best brain. Women love him. Blacks love him. Nazis love him. He knows more than the generals. He has the best gut. He’s always honest and fully transparent. No collusion; no obstruction.

He’s a legend in his own mind.

(Exactly 120 words)

0BE2884E-7B59-4CF7-9FF5-2A520D46C463Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where we are challenged to write a poem or piece of prose using the word “legend” in exactly 120 words.

#FOWC — Myths, Legends, and Fables

Fandango18 Comments

E6723579-975B-4CD6-A641-B2E230FE5737Warning. This post is bound to offend, irritate, or piss off certain readers, especially those who take the Bible, the Quran, or whatever other holy books they believe in seriously or literally. So if you are such a person, you may wish to exit this post now.

I’ve always enjoyed reading and studying mythology and the stories of heroic and legendary characters. But as entertaining as they may be, I’ve never, as a very pragmatic individual, put much credence into these tales. That’s because they are, plain and simple, folklore.

Folklore is essentially traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed down through the generations, first by word of mouth and later by the written/printed word.

Like folklore, fables are generally short tales designed to teach a moral lesson, often with animals as characters.

A legend is a type of folklore, but it typically features human actions, rather than animals, and is perceived to have taken place within human history. It’s typically a non-historical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times that is often popularly accepted as historical.

And that brings us to myths, which are stories concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

Perhaps it’s because of my aforementioned pragmatism, my logic, and my reason, that I can’t quite grasp how so many people in the 21st century truly believe as real the folklore, myths, fables, and legends contained in their holy books and are willing to fight and maybe even die to defend their own versions of these myths and legends as being the only ones to be believed.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if people just appreciated their myths, fables, and legends for the folklore that they are. Believe whatever you want, but don’t use your myths as a weapon against those whose myths may be different from yours.

This irreligious rant was written for yesterday’s Fandango’s One-Word Challenge, “legend.” Sorry, I’m a day late, but my tour guide duties continue to keep me away from my blog.

FOWC with Fandango — Legend

Fandango21 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 15, 2018 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “legend.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.

The Legend of All Legends

Fandango5 Comments

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The Christian Bible was written over the course of 1,600 years by about 40 different authors on three different continents. This unique collection of stories serves as the foundation for the world’s largest religion, Christianity.

Every word of the Bible has been studied and parsed. The book has been weaponized and wars have been fought over it. Non-believers in the “truth” of the Bible have been persecuted and killed. It has been questioned and ridiculed as much as it has been revered and prized.

So is the Bible a factual accounting of the creation of everything by an omnipotent being, or is it a book of legends and myths, no different from the legend of King Arthur or the mythologies of the pre-Christianity gods?

To me, the Bible is an interesting, sometimes fascinating, book of fables and parables. But it’s not a text book, a history book, or a science book. Too much of the Bible is simply unbelievable to my practical, pragmatic mind.

Many of the “facts” in the Bible are simply wrong or are scientifically impossible. For example, according to Genesis, the universe is just over 6000 years old. We know that is not true.

Or take the tale of Joshua stopping the sun moving across the sky. This story assumes that the earth was flat and was at the center of the universe. And for the sun to stop, the earth would have to cease rotating on its axis, which would destroy the planet. We know these stories, and many other biblical stories, to be false.

Further, the Bible is full of inconsistencies. How can it be an accurate historical record, when the various books of the Bible contradict one another?

We also know that other world religions also contain rich histories of mythology and fantastical sounding stories, many of which stories are similar to those found in the Bible.

I have no quarrel with those for whom the Bible brings solace and comfort and serves as the anchor for their spiritual and religious beliefs. I would hope that they have no quarrel with me for believing that the Bible is simply a book of legends.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “legend.”