Things and Stuff
Writing Challenge 2024
Posted by Chris Sissons on Feb 21, 2024
Writing Challenge ยป Chris Sissons
Yes, that’s right my topic for 2024 is "Things and Stuff". Ah ha, I hear you saying – this is far too general as a topic – you can’t write generally about Things and Stuff for 21 days.
OK, you win! I’ll write about bodies. I know loads about bodies. I used to teach Human Biology. I could do the mouth to the anus in one hour! I spotted a deep resemblance between human sex organs and Battlestar Galactica. And I never worked out what to do about Beauty Therapists.
But you see, human bodies are nothing without things and stuff. And it’s our relationships with things and stuff that I want to explore. So, that's what I'll do, despite your many well-founded objections.
I’ve been thinking about beauty recently. Not so much the beauty of human bodies (although I understand some are quite beautiful or so I’m told), (as some would have it they are wonderfully made or wrought).
But what about things and stuff? What makes some thing beautiful? Here’s a task, go and have a root around in your cutlery drawer. You know there’s nothing beautiful in there? Have you looked? I mean really looked? Go and have a proper look and don’t come back until you find something!
What is it that makes this thing beautiful? Why did you pick it out? Is it age, familiarity? Do you like the feel of the thing? Have you ever appreciated this thing before?
Of course, not all things are beautiful. We live in a throwaway world, full of mass-produced objects. Can they be beautiful? Maybe. But are we less likely to value their beauty in a throwaway world?
And don’t get me started on stuff … Whatever happened to soap and ink and beer (warning: this is not a recipe)? Every advance seems to take us to a worse place.
And then there’s the world we move around in. Is that not a thing? Maybe you can’t hold it in your hand but are you not using it when you walk through it?
Here’s a final thought about beauty. What happens when we treat things as things? Are we in danger of treating people as things? Perhaps if we treat at least some of our things as people, as faithful friends, we’re just that bit more likely to see people as people.
This is Day 0 of Writing Challenge 2024. I'll be sharing 21 articles based loosely on parts of the body. Do we fully appreciate the role things and stuff play in our lives? I've no idea where this will go but hope you enjoy the journey. The next post will be Spectacular Insights.
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