Talk with BillZ

WRITER PROMPT: Tell Me About Your Name

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:39:19 -0500

What’s often the first thing you say when you meet someone new? Usually you introduce yourself and tell that person your name.
So names are very important. They help tell the world who we are.
Tell me about your name. What is it? Does your name have a special meaning in your language?
Is there a special story about your name and how you got it?
Were you named after someone? If so, who? Is that person very special to you? A relative or a hero or a person from history or a character in a book? Were you named after a flower or animal?
How do you feel about your name? Do you like it? Or hate it? Does your name make you feel proud? Do your friends call you by your nick name or change your name to a shortened form or a nickname?
Some people have more than one name – some have a middle name and even more. If you have more than one name, what is yours?
If you could have named yourself when you were a baby, what name would you have chosen? And why?
What is the most beautiful name your ever heard?
Have you ever given a name to someone, such as a child, or to a creature, such as a dog or cat? What names did you choose?
I look forward to hearing from you.

WRITER PROMPT: Leave a Message for Obama

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:17:32 -0500

If you could placer a message on the desk of the incoming president-elect Barack Obama, what would it say?
Give him your best advice, your hopes and dreams, your encouragement, your wisdom. He will need all the good advice he can get if he is to solve the problems of the United States and the world.

WRITER PROMPT: What You See or Experience

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:28:29 -0500

Tell me about an interesting place you have seen or about something special you have done in your life. (It also could be something from your imagination, something that you have made up but would like to see come true.)

What was it like? Describe the place or action. Just keep your pencil on the page and keep writing. Don’t worry about making spelling errors or finding the correct word. The main point is to keep writing and not to worry. In writing, there are no bad thoughts.

WRITER PROMPT: Starting a New Way of Life

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:34:59 -0500

Someone says to you, ''Invent the life you want to live.''
How would you respond? What kind of new life would you want for yourself that would be different from the way you are today? How would you change?
Write to us.

WRITER PROMPT: Your reaction to the election results

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:35:41 -0500

On this day, when the United States elected its first black President, Barack Obama, I stand in awe and amazement that my nation has come so far. Never in my lifetime did I ever expect to see a black American elected to this highest office.

I remember that August day in 1963 when I marched in Washington with the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of thousands of others to advocate the enactment of civil rights legislation that would extend all freedoms to black Americans, and hearing Dr. King's wonderful ''I Have a Dream...''' speech in which one of the things he said was:
''I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.''

That day seems to have come with the new election, and my heart is so grateful for this. In many ways, we have overcome many of our deepest prejudices over the years, and we should take a moment to appreciate how far we have journeyed in our quest for freedom, for equality of all peoples, and for justice for all.

I am so proud to be a member of our nation.

Please share with me your feelings and hopes about the election results and where our nation may be headed.

WRITER PROMPT: What You Would Do as President

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:35:21 -0500

Today's a history-making day as people throughout the United States line up at the polls to vote for a new President.
Imagine that you were elected President and can command the support of Congress and the American people to develop programs that will address many of the nation's problems and help overcome the terrible difficulties we now face with war, the economy, health, and other issues.
Think for a moment and tell us what you would do if you were President.
We'd like to hear your views. Send them to us.

WRITER PROMPT: Loving Meditation Thoughts

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:12:14 -0500

At a meditation practice group, the leader asks participants to think with loving kindness and an open heart about the following things and then to extend these good wishes to oneself, to loved ones, to a stranger encountered during the day, and to the wide world. She says:

May you be safe from harm.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you feel loved.
May you feel at ease in the world.

These are wonderful things to think about and wish for ourselves and for others. Now, if you could add to these wishes, what are the lines you would add?
Please share your thoughts with us

WRITER PROMPT: What Is Your Favorite Possession?

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:14:46 -0500

We each possess something we love dearly. Maybe it is a book or a piece of jewelry that someone lovingly gave to us. Maybe it is a childhood toy or stuffed animal or letter we received.
If I were to ask you to which favorite possession of yours that you would give to someone very special, which would it be?
Tell us why this object is so important to you -- its history and why you care about it.
Please share with us.

WRITER PROMPT: What Do You Know for Sure?

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:21:37 -0500

What do you know for sure?
That question was asked by a magazine and is worth considering in our own lives, too.
As uncertain as life is, and as confused as we may be at times by the things that happen to us, there are still things that each of us can be certain about. For some, the one thing they may know or believe in is the love and importance of family; for others, it may be to persist no matter what difficulties we face, and for others, the one thing they may know is that we each have a responsibility to help others.

So, I ask this question to you. What is the one important thing you have learned in your life, the one thing you are sure about no matter what life hands to you? I am sure you have an answer.
Please share your thoughts with us.

WRITER PROMPT: What Do You Want to Invent?

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:28:04 -0500

What kind of invention would you like to invent? Why? What would it be like?
Can you give it a name?

Please share your creative ideas with us. Send them in by email.

WRITER PROMPT: What to Place on a Wall of Shame?

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:31:52 -0500

In recent days I heard the expressions ''hall of shame'' and ''wall of shame'' and wondered about them. What do they mean? What would one place in a hall of shame or hang on a wall of shame.
Would this be the personal things which we have done in our lives and which we feel bad about, or would it be things about the world, such as war or pollution, that horrify us and which we want to call attention t as perhaps a first step to change them.
You are invited to share your own thoughts about these questions. Please share with us.

WRITER PROMPT: What Will You Do With Your Life?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:40:32 -0500

In her wonderful poem, ''The Summer Day,'' the poet Mary Oliver walks in nature and observes all its beauty, all the wonderful living things, like the grasshopper. And while she is well aware of how wonderful life is, she is also acutely aware of how short a time all living creatures have on this earth. She asks, ''Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?'' And, then, a more important question:
''Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?''

This question is worth thinking about: What are some of the things you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? What are your hopes and dreams? Please share with us.

Here is Ms. Oliver's poem:

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

WRITER PROMPT: If You Could Smell a Cloud...

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:29:35 -0500

You are able to walk on a bridge of rainbows.
You can taste and smell a cloud.
You can touch and commune with the fish in the sea in which you swim.
You can even catch the sun's rays and place them in a box to open when you need sunlight.
You can place the fog in a can.
You can capture a dog's bark or a cat's meow in a box to open when you want to listen to these sounds

Now, close your eyes for a moment to savor these extraordinary moments of your imagination. Which one captures your fancy? Share the experience with us by writing something and sending it in yo ud.

WRITER PROMPT: If You Could Change the World...

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:55:22 -0500

You alone have the power to change the world and make it better, the way you always wanted it to be. You can change people. You can make the world reflect your own sense of beauty, your own values and beliefs. What kind of brave new world would emerge if you were running things?

WRITER PROMPT: You Are Transformed

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:28:53 -0500

One morning you wake up to discover that you no longer look like yourself-- your are some other creature with apparently more legs and hands and eyes than you remember having before you went to sleep. You break out in a cold sweat, then panic overcomes you as you try to deal with these changes. What are you now? How did you get into this predicament? How will your life change? You're not even sure what to call yourself. And yet, are you still ''you'' inside?
Write about your transformation.