13 July 2022
The Challenge
Mark decided to challenge himself. Not with any feats of strength, or acts of daring. It was something more difficult.
As Mark recalled, someone once said that in order to do this, one must just sit on a chair and bleed.
Mark was thinking of writing of course. Writing stories.
But this challenge is much more than just writing, which he has been pushing himself to do all these past years, with very little success.
The challenge was, or is, to write "A story a week".
Insane, Mark told himself.
It was not an original idea of course.
Mark read about it from an accomplished Filipino writer who posted about it on Facebook. And he perhaps copied it too from somebody else.
It wasn't such a new concept, but something to push aspiring writers to ...sit down ... and bleed.
So this is where Mark found himself this morning, staring at a blank screen, in front of his digital typewriter.
Looking around, he tried to get inspiration on what to write.
He saw mugs full of pens and pencils ... a story about pens and pencils, on who are the more dominant objects in their universe ... maybe ...
A box of tissues ... a story about the people who make boxes and boxes of tissues and toilet paper, and how they became important workers of society during a great worldwide pandemic (inspired by the toilet paper rush and shortage during the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic) ... maybe
Mark glanced at the air conditioner in front of him, and thought about ... nothing .... not even about the air conditioner technician who installed the unit three years ago... or about a global air conditioner in a world destroyed by climate change, and is trapped inside a bubble, and the family that operates this Globo Air unit to provide comfort cooling and warmth, and clean air to breathe. Maybe there is something there....
Yes, Mark thought, there might be something to this challenge.
Now, where to start.....
Mark looked to his left, and saw a framed certificate of his, received more than forty years ago, telling of his green belt in Karate, which he received when he was around ten years old.
The certificate was framed in glass, and the light coming from the fluorescent tube light above gave it a mirror like surface.
On this frame Mark saw himself, hands on the keys of his typewriter, pondering the challenge he set for himself.
Mark smiled, and knew where to start.
