Monthly Peace Challenge: Empathy Blogging

To help inspire the Bloggers for Peace (B4Peace), we will have a Monthly Peace Challenge. To participate, tag your post with B4Peace and make sure you copy your URL to the Linkz collection. Anyone who completes all twelve Monthly Peace Challenges in 2014 will receive a Free B4Peace T-shirt. Yes, I’ve decided to offer the second annual Bloggers for Peace T-shirt as a prize. I envision a day when we will all gather for a Bloggers for Peace Conference donning our various Bloggers for Peace T-shirts.

Sorry this challenge is a bit late; I’ve been having my challenges finding funds to pay off overdue taxes.

For this month’s challenge, I would like to work on empathy. Empathy is being able to step into the shoes of another and see things from their point of view. I challenge you to empathize with other bloggers this month.

• Write a post in the style of another blogger. What idiosyncrasies do they have that you can emulate? Make sure you link your post to theirs.  “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
• Publish a post that is in a completely different genre than you usually post. If you usually post prose, then try poetry, art, photography, video.
• Post something that is includes quotations from another blogger. Maybe you can expand upon the thoughts of another blogger. Or you can start a conversation.
• Write a post in the voice of your favorite peacemaker. What if you embodied MLK or Gandhi on your blog? Imagine writing a post in the voice of Bob Marley. What would Mother Teresa blog about?
• Write a post about empathy. When was the last time you really empathized with someone? How has empathy brought peace into your life.

Don’t forget to link to at least one other B4Peace post and add your post to the Linkz collection. Here is how:

• Copy your URL to the Linkz collection. You’ll find the link below. It’s the drunk blue frog smiling for peace. Click on it and follow directions.
• Go visit this site to read and comment on other posts related to this Monthly Peace Challenge.

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Unrequited Love–Unfulfilling Sex

The amazing Rarasaur is hosting the Weekly Writing Challenge at WordPress with this prompt:

This week, we’re asking you to consider things from a different point of view — to walk a mile in someone’s shoes. Leave your moccasins and bunny slippers at the door, and tell us a tale from a fully-immersed perspective that is not your own.

Rara also did an interview at You’ve Been Hooked where she advises us to “be brave” in order to be a successful blogger. So here is my brave submission to the Weekly Writing Challenge. This is me empathizing with two young lovers.

Him	Her
Man, she’s hot. I’d like to have her for one night.	He’s cute. I’d love to get to know him better over the next few months.
The boys will think I’m a stud if I had sex with her.	The girls will be so jealous if he were my boyfriend.
She seems kind. Maybe she won’t ridicule me if I mess up in bed.	He seems kind. Maybe he will treat me well.
If I tell her I love her, maybe she will sleep with me.	He said he loved me. I must be special.
She looked in my eyes. I hope she didn’t see the real me.	He looked into my eyes. I hope he sees the real me.
I’m naked. I wonder if she thinks I’m too small.	I’m naked. I wonder if he thinks I’m too big.
Since I can’t get love, I’ll settle for an orgasm.	Since I can’t orgasm, I’ll settle for a little love.
Did I come too soon?	Was I too innocent/dirty/wild/demure/loud/quiet?
I wonder if she liked it?	I hope he liked it?
I hope no one finds out about this.	I hope no one finds out about this.
I feel so inadequate. I gotta get out of here.	He is leaving. Was I inadequate?
Why do I keep doing this?	Why do I keep doing this?
I’m such an idiot.	I’m such an idiot.
Will I ever find someone to love me?	Will I ever find someone to love?

I really want to know what you think of this post. Do you find sex confusing? Are you unable to empathize with the opposite sex about sex? Is my portrayal completely off base? Please Share.

Other entries from Rara’s Challenge:

On the River: http://teepee12.com/2014/01/28/on-the-river/

Inside the Head of a Sporadic Three Year Old: http://onesahmscrazylife.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/inside-the-head-of-a-sporadic-three-year-old/

Fifteen Year Old Me is Disgusted: http://thecheesewhines.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/fifteen-year-old-me-is-disgusted/

A Peace of Picasso

My first glimpse into the horrors of war did not come until after college. On a surf trip to the Basque Country of Spain, I asked a local friend what I should do since the waves were flat. He said I should go visit Guernica.

“Why would I go there?” I asked.

“It’s the city depicted in Picasso’s painting,” he said raising both his hands high in the air.

I had no idea what he was talking about. I never took art history at UC Santa Barbara. To tell the truth, all I really cared about as an undergrad was getting “some tasty waves and a cool buzz.”

Men: The Problem and the Solution

This is an issue I really care about, so I’ve decided to come out from behind the curtain to talk to you.

Do you see these incidents as symptoms of a much larger problem? Why or Why not? Please share. 

 

 

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Bender: I take shop. You must be a f#*kin’ idiot!

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Bender: No, you’re a genius because you can’t make a lamp.

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Bender: I could care less about Trigonometry.

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Bender: Without lamps, there’d be no light.

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Feeling My Way to Peace

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears…”–Jimmy Valvano

Last week, I took my wife to see Les Miserable, and Anne Hathaway  brought me to tears. (Quick review: Hathaway=Oscar; Jackman and Crowe sounded off key at times, and I’m tone deaf; Tom Hooper revolutionized filmmaking with his skin-tight close-ups) By the end of the film, however, my wife was sobbing, and I was just enjoying the music.

This is not the first time this had happened to me. In college, I took my girlfriend to see Platoon and she almost had to be removed from the theater because she was crying inconsolably during the My Lai-like massacre scene. My response, like everyone else in the theater, was “calm down; it’s just a movie.”

A Means to Survive: A Justification for Blogging

I love my wife to death. She is part of an inner circle club that has only ever had two members: me and her. She loves and accepts me with all my flaws, inadequacies, and mistakes. She is quite literally a part of me.

Maybe it is because of the tragic events that occurred earlier this month. Maybe it is because I study Buddhism (Bad Buddhist joke: Why did the Buddhist doctor get fired? Because he put down “birth” every time he had to answer “Cause of Death.”). Maybe it is because I am trying to be more empathetic with those who are grieving, but I have been thinking about what it would be like to lose the most significant bond I have made.

What would I do? Who would I turn to? How would I survive?

We Can Make a Difference–Right Here, Right Now

 

“Peace is not something you wish for, it something you make, something you do, something you are, something you give away.”–Robert Fulghum

In an effort to actively do something to create more peace in the world in 2013, I am dedicating a number of my posts specifically to peace. I invite you to join me. We can call ourselves “Bloggers for Peace.” Everyone is invited to join. The requirements are simple and flexible.

• Devote at least one post a month to/for/about peace. If you write poems or fiction, write a piece about peace. If you take photos, post a photo or gallery that reflects, symbolizes, defines, or creates peace. If you write rants, rant at something that disturbs the peace or rant about something that promotes peace. If you are into zen, post a blank white page. If you are an artist…you get the idea. Feel free to be creative. Peace has no boundaries. There are no mistakes. We have no enemies.

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