my platform

Being that it's an election year, the news is full of political discussion these days. Most of it makes me want to smash things. I intentionally avoid discussing politics and religion on my blog - one, because to be honest I don't like talking about either. Both topics simultaneously bore and anger me. And two, because such conversations are intensely personal and result in controversy - which is another thing I try to avoid on my blog. I don't want to dodge the issues and I do respect differing opinions, however, I believe what I believe and I don't think that my opinions can change anyone else's nor do I expect that others' arguments will change my beliefs.

But all the political talk lately has gotten me thinking...what's my platform?

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The Scintilla Project | Day 1:  Prompt #1. Who are you?

I wrote this post last night. This morning, the writing prompts for The Scintilla Project arrived in my inbox. I read the prompts and didn't feel inspired by either one. My plan for participating in The Scintilla Project was to use the topics that interested me, but not force the ones that don't. But then I realized that this post was the perfect response to Prompt #1: Who are you? Perhaps a list is a non-traditional approach to writing, but I'm non-traditional and since I'm not in school anymore, I'm fine with interpreting the rules so that they work for me.

I'll continue to respond to the Scintilla prompts that inspire me, but will post the topics at the bottom of the post, because I want my writing to stand on its own as opposed to just answering a question. If I had a mission statement for my blog it would be to document my life and my creative process (and the progress of my little shop) - through photography, writing, humorous snippets of my day, crude drawings, stories about my dogs, or just recaps of my weekends. I don't follow blogging trends, answer memes, do link-ups, or post something just because everyone else is doing it. I don't choose topics to increase readership. I write this blog first and foremost for myself. That being said, I really appreciate those of you who stop by to read, comment, and support my blog and my shop. The connections with readers, other bloggers, and customers that I've made through this blog (both online and in real life) are a huge bonus!

A good post is a good post - and if what I write is good regardless of the writing prompt and stands on its own as an interesting blog post, then yes, I'll share it on my blog. If my writing is a forced response to a question, undoubtably the post will be boring - to avoid this, I'll be skipping the prompts that don't inspire my best writing (or photography, or drawing, or however I choose to interpret the prompt!).