The sky looks gloomy. Rather, I should say that I feel a sense of gloominess when looking at the overcast sky. Words matter. I talked about that yesterday. Listening to the news, reading the endless stream of Tweets and posts on social media suggests that the sun has become absent in most places on planet Earth. It makes a person want to load up all the bots and trolls and dump them into the trash bin.
It didn’t take me long to say “Enough is enough” and switch gears. As a writer, that is one of my strengths, changing channels. As many of my readers know, I have multiple writing projects on the go at one time. Well, I have just added a new project, a hardcover storybook for my granddaughter who will be turning four in six weeks.
For the past few days, I have been going through my photo archives to include in the story book. Now with the photos chosen, I did a test run with using 65 lb paper to serve as the pages. I set the document on landscape with two columns. Then, using the first two photos that will begin the story, which I placed in opposite columns, I added story text and then did a test printout of that page. It worked well. I will prepare the rest of the story the same way. Then, I will glue the pages together to form thicker pages, just right for a four-year old’s hands. It has been a good beginning.
Then my poor attention span has me once again returning to social media in hopes of seeing some sunlight, the visible proof that people are becoming more aware of the collective shadow that is gnawing away at our humanity. Well, that didn’t last long. Humanity is in trouble. I think of a drug addict and know that there is no hope to change the channel until our modern world has hit rock bottom. There is no room for dialogue when no one cares to listen, really listen to the voices of others. Still, I add in my voice pleading others to embrace kindness and compassion. I end up preaching to the choir and having the others rail. Again, enough is enough.
Next, I turned to a naturist story that is in process. So far, 7,000 words have been written. The story follows a group of six aliens, a heterosexual couple, a lesbian couple, and two brothers who have been living on the planet Earth for eight years. The group gets recalled to an outpost base on the moon from where they are to travel to Europa for another project. Naturally, things will get in the way. In their natural state they are always nude with only lanyards and armbands to serve as symbols of office and rank. I would like to present you with a snippet of the story where the six are on a shuttle from the Earth to a lunar base. Two “cadets” are curious about the six who are famous in their own right.
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“My name is Bets and this is Les. We are more than honoured to meet the six of you. And yes, the six of you are famous. We’ve all heard of your stories. You and your work is part of the course work at the lunar university for Earth Studies.”
Jori moved gracefully as she floated closer to Bets and Les and said, “Join us for a meal. I hear the meal packages have improved since the last time we were on a shuttle.”
Everyone laughed. Shuttle food was designed for nutrition, not for taste or texture. One chose a meal with little hope that the name would match the contents. Paste was paste. Spices could only do so much. The squeeze bottles of liquid were much more preferable, especially alcoholic beverages.
It didn’t take long for the eight of them to feel comfortable with their new acquaintances. Maddie told the young cadets about music and fashion.
“Do humans actually buy into the need to constantly change the style of their clothing?” asked Les.
“Yes, they do. One set of clothes barely gets used before they think they need a more modern set of outfits. It’s irrational, and economically and environmentally wasteful. But for the women, a positive self image is intimately tied to having the latest colours and styles of clothing as dictated by the fashion industry, even if they are ugly and uncomfortable.”
“That sounds so sad.”
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There, the sun is peeking out and my mood shifts as a smile appears.