sometimes the simplest prompts are the toughest to answer.
i'd been mulling over the prompt "gifts" for hours, trying to think of something to write. a little free association led me to a quote from "harry potter and the methods of rationality", a fanfic i used to love in high school. i canned it because i thought it was too risky a topic. harry potter is contentious, and rationality is poorly received.
but my writing is based on motivation, and all i wanted to do was write about that fic. so i've suppressed it, and instead brought you this piece of introspection. it's amazing how many words one can write about not having any words.
so, given my current workaround for my writer's block, here's the last verse of a poem i like. it's "to a louse", by robert burns.
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
or, in modern english:
Oh, would some Power the gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
And even devotion!
maybe i need to see myself from a clearer perspective. was there even a risk of people getting mad at me for writing about a harry potter fanfic? somehow, i doubt it. i trust the people who read my work to read it in good faith and assume the best of me.
