Junk Mail, Acceptance, and Electricity

March 23, 2019 by JoAnna 26 Comments

We have a different sort of prompt today. Very clever idea, Linda! Our prompt is:

“…the last piece of mail you received.” Talk about the subject of the last piece of physical mail you received, i.e. a gas bill–talk about gas, not the bill itself. Have fun!

Hmmmm. First, I want to say I almost thought about not doing SoCS this week because I’m going to our church yard sale, and since we’re still living an hour away from our regular home and church, I won’t have a lot of time to do the community thing until later. But I just couldn’t NOT do SoCS! It’s not really an addiction. It’s… an obsession? No. Part of my routine. Yes. That’s it. Every Friday, when I go to Linda’s prompt page and look for the prompt, there’s a drum roll in my head. But I guess I should get to the prompt.

The last two pieces of mail I got (at the same time) were the electric bill and some “junk” mail for my father which is the more interesting topic. When my father died, or shortly thereafter which was just over two years ago, I filled out a change of address card to get his mail and started receiving a LOT of mail from organizations he has donated to. My dad’s “junk” mail was more prominent than my regular mail. After a year, I filled out another card to stop his mail. But it just keeps coming. A lot of times, I write a little message on the donation card that he was deceased and please stop sending mail. Very slowly the mail addressed to my dad has decreased but it still comes, even after more than two years. The mail I got yesterday was from one organization I’ve actually written three separate notes to, asking them to PLEASE stop sending mail to my deceased father. It used to really bother me. Now, it’s starting to bother me less. I’m on the verge of just accepting it. With every piece of mail like that, no matter who it’s for, if it comes to my house and I get my hands on it, I magic marker out the name and address before I put it in recycling. So I think I might just give up. Surrender. Black out the name and address and put it in recycling without getting irritated about it. Who knows, that might work! Maybe acceptance is the lesson that will stop the junk mail for my father! We shall see.

The electric bill reminds me of something I will not accept: that electricity is the only power there is. So I will continue to call it electricity and not “power.” Electricity is nice to have – especially in the winter and summer – but when we don’t have it, we still have power. That’s my story, and I’m sticking go it!

…

If you’d like to learn more about the SoCS and get a drum roll going in your head every Friday, or just read more takes on the prompt, visit Linda G. Hill at:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/03/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-23-19/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!