Sunny Monday

Ah, weird post title! But it was a nice day, even though a cold afternoon. Didn't take dogs on walk. I was expecting someone at 1:00, they never showed up. Had some errands in town, and didn't get back till late.

I managed to watch President Obama's inaugural speech -- and as usual, it was inspiring and delivered eloquently. I hope better days are ahead for our country, especially in the matter of health care reform. Time will tell though.

A short writing prompt:

What is your greatest fear? 

I think my greatest fear is losing all my savings through medical bills. It could easily happen, even with medical insurance. Or I could also lose my mortgage-free home to medical bankruptcy. Truly, that is one of my nightmares: outliving my savings. My income would continue, but I really want to leave the savings to a worthwhile cause.

I met an elderly lady (94) who was scared to death because she'd run out of savings to pay for her assisted living care. She didn't want to be in a nursing home, particularly in the room with another person. I realized that is almost the curse of living to be so old...

And now I'll close with this quote I've always liked about writers:

"The discovery of the complexity of human nature was accompanied by another -- the discovery of the complexity and irrationality of human motive, the discovery that one could love and hate simultaneously, be honest & cheap, be arrogant & humble, be any pair of opposites that one had supposed to be mutually exclusive. This, I believe, is not common knowledge and would be incomprehensible to many. It has always been known, of course, by the dramatists and the novelist. It is, in fact, a knowledge far more disturbing to other people than to writers, for to writers it is the grist to their mills." --Alan Paton "The Challenge of Fear" Saturday Review, 1967

I remember distinctly when I first realized such human complexity -- I was in my late 20s, just starting to write creatively. I thought it was a blinding revelation...one I could use in my work. But also, from that time forward, it never really shocked me when an average person everyone thought was peaceful, nice, respectful, etc suddenly killed family and/or random people. That is the quandary of human nature, and denial of it by most people is because they cannot imagine someone they love doing the unthinkable. It happens though, just watch the news for a week or two and you'll see the truth revealed.