The Pickle Loaf Bologna File #4
Writing prompt: A body of water
My grandma lived her life as an Iowa small-town housewife. One day she took my cousin, brother, neighbor friend, and me down to the nearby creek called ‘Kess’s.’ It was named after the farmer who owned the cows that pooped upstream. Grandma packed sandwiches. We pulled a wagon. We caught a hundred tadpoles, then sloshed back to grandma’s, where our load sat for a week.
She made a lot of food. She wrote each day’s events in her journal without reflection. I can’t remember a single thing of interest she ever said. But if you want to know what grandpa ate for lunch on August 21st, 1973, it’s there.
A breed of small-town kid exists with no other purpose than to drink generic soda while shirtless. We called them ‘dirties.’ Occasionally a dirty would jump off Kess’s bridge into the shallow water and large rocks. I never jumped, but often imagined a whole future where I did. I’d achieve the momentary amusement of a handful of small-town kids I didn’t care about, break my ankles, and walk the rest of my life with a limp. I’d be 45, working in a factory and limping to my lunch break, cursing the dirties who’d not even remember who I was.
In reality, I was working in a factory by 21. My thoughts were, “The future does not exist. Neither does the past. Dirties and small-town grandmas somehow know this.”
Kess’s
My Humor Books
My Daily Stoic Journal
Each day I read Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic and journal my thoughts.
My process: I read the journal entry I wrote the day before, then read The Daily Stoic piece for the current day, then journal my thoughts. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes.
My goal is to reduce unnecessary daily anxiety. There will always be some anxiety in modern life. I’m just trying to cut as much of the unnecessary stuff as possible, and I recommend you do the same.
Here’s my journal entry for 10/14:
I like to read articles that show my political opponent’s weaknesses. This desire is about me. It’s my brain trying to self-medicate through defense mechanisms. Wrong thinking.
I’ll try to catch myself when opening a critical video. I pause and say, “I accept myself for all my flaws unconditionally. I am good and worthy of belonging.” The video loses its attraction, and I usually play music instead. Isn’t that strange?
The Think Funny Podcast: This Week in History for 10/24-10/30 (with special guest Jenni Donley)
Staring Aaron Donley, Nate Sadler, and Matt Donley. A podcast about everything that happened in history, each day of the week.
This week’s topics include:
Tight Italian curls
The sinking of the USS Tang
The vulgarity of Waylon Jennings
Sourest day
Orson Wells does not care
and more.
I plugged these terms into Midjourney, an Artificial Intelligence platform. Here is what came back:
Until next time,
Aaron