I was inspired to join this #blogbattle challenge by Sha’Tara’s submission. I mean, a maximum word count and a pre-chosen topic (loss) are the very definition of “challenging” to me as a writer! How could I resist? Lol! You can find out more about it, including how to enter yourself by going here:
https://blogbattlers.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/blogbattle-loss/
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Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“Welcome, listeners, to this week’s edition of Conversations. I’m your host, Jules Seeker, and today we have a wonderful and unique guest with us. You’ve probably heard of her, and whether you love her or hate her, you’ve got to be at least a little curious about what all the commotion has been about. So without further ado, please help me welcome the infamous guru of our time, Ms. Elyssa Campton!
“Ms. Campton… Or may I call you Elyssa…?”
“Call me whatever you like, Jules. Names and titles matter little to me.”
“Ok, then, Elyssa it is. You must be aware of the controversy surrounding you. Some say you run a dangerous cult, others claim you are a modern day savior. Which would you say is closer to the truth?”
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
[laughing…] “And here I thought you were going to ask the tough questions, Jules! Or so says your reputation, anyway… But if you want to start out easy, I’m game.
“Which would I say is closer to the truth? Neither. And both.”
“I’m sorry, Elyssa, I don’t understand.”
“I don’t run anything, Jules, nor am I here to save anyone. Do I have a following? Sure. But I didn’t invite them, or in any way entice them. They choose to follow me, but I haven’t asked them to…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“As to the modern day savior bit, I’d say people are giving me undue credit for the choices they’re making. Of course, they will, in time, also find a way to cast blame my way, when things don’t work out as they hope.”
“And you’re ok with this?”
“Does it matter? I have no control over others, good or bad. That’s my point. If they want to toss their power around, who am I to stop them?”
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“But… but… hmmm…
“Ok, let’s go in a different direction. If you could sum up the purpose of life in just one word, what would it be?”
[laughing again…] “Easy… Loss.”
“Loss?! Seriously?… I’m sorry, I just don’t understand.”
“Yes, loss. It’s simple, really. We’re born into this time and space complete and whole as individuals, and as we progress through days and weeks and months and years, we gradually lose it all…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“Or so one would hope…”
“Umm… Well… Hmm…
“Ok, I admit it, I’m totally lost. I have no idea what you’re talking about, Elyssa! Care to explain that a bit more for myself and our listeners today?”
[a smile lifting her voice]… “Sure, I can do that, Jules.
“When I was born, I lost the security of my mother’s womb, being cast out into an uncertain world, overwhelmed by light and noise and fear…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“When I was about a year old, I lost my mother. Or she lost me, depending on your point of view, I guess. After all, she was the one who abandoned me…
“When I was five, I lost my place in my family unit, being replaced by step siblings and relegated to the role of family bartender…
“When I was eight I lost my innocence because my drunk and lonely father often got confused, uncertain whether I should be his daughter or his wife…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“Around that time I also lost my belief in justice, learning that no one really wants responsibility for protecting children from their abusers…
“By the time I hit thirteen, I saw potential slip away, as alcohol gradually replaced any desire to succeed…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“When sixteen rolled around, I lost whatever integrity I had left; right and wrong have no place in the struggle to survive…
“And when that desire to live slipped quietly away, and Death became my most immediate goal, I learned that wanting anything was pointless and absurd. The Universe simply doesn’t care what I want, and life steals every hope away, twisting it into something unrecognizable…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“Wow, Elyssa… That’s truly depressing! Why would anyone want to live like that? Why would anyone want to follow someone who believes that?!”
“Because everyone has experienced such loss in one way or another. If you’re honest with yourself, Jules, you’ll have to admit your life has been a series of losses, too.”
“Well… maybe, to some extent, but still…”
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“Christ! What is that annoying sound?!”
[laughing] “Oh that? Not to worry, Jules. That’s just the sound of marbles slipping (not so quietly) away…”
Dead silence…
“You’re crazy, Elyssa! Totally bat-shit crazy!!”
“Yep! And proud of it, thank you very much!”
“So… You don’t actually know anything about enlightenment, do you? Your whole gig is a lie, a con, a scam!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Jules! Everything I’ve told you is the truth. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you…
Clink, clank, rattle rattle, whoosh…
“It’s true I’ve lost a lot, that everyone loses in life, but that’s hardly a bad thing. Because part of what we lose, repeatedly, is our sense of expectation and entitlement…
“And when all that is gone, our egos slip away, along with everything else that makes us different or special…
“And we are left with nothing…
“Nothing but the present moment. Nothing but the common element. Nothing but the purest essence of what we are created from…
“And that complete and whole individual we were born as disintegrates completely…
“Allowing us the freedom to be every person, place or thing, simultaneously and without contradiction…
“And that, my friend, is what we stand to gain from all those losses…”
Clink… Rattle, rattle… Whoooshhh…
Silence…
(960 words)
the otherhood of one 
Well Tubularsock likes Elyssa and a great and wonderful bit of writing and insight here, Lisa ……..
Clink … Rattle, rattle … Whoooshhh …
What comes to Tubularsock’s mind is the question, “Where are you going when you are already there?”
And as they said in the Civil War, Lisa …….. “Keep your powder dry.”
Thanks.
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Where are you going when you’re already there? Why nowhere, of course, since you’re everywhere at once…
😁
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Not responding to the powder quote because I don’t understand. Lol!
Love you, Tubular! ❤️
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Great dialogue with a powerful lesson. I think Elyssa is the leader of a very dangerous cult… Well, not a cult, an idea that spells anarchy, from the madness of world domination through the real cults: government, money, religion, to the sweet madness of choice and self empowerment.
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I agree, Sha’Tara. Totally. Lol!
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Good story, Lisa. You could expand it into a psychological horror novel, but please don’t, lol.
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Lol! Interesting that you chose that genre because it never would have occurred to me to try. Definitely not in my wheel house. But then, everything about this challenge was a challenge, so why not? 😉
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I don’t read most horror, just one who turnec to horror from science fiction. Yet I acgually wrote a horror novella once when I needed to cleanse myself from a different work of fiction I had just finished. It is the last piece of long fiction I ever wrote. I scared myself with what I was capable of writing.
You wrote a great little piece above. I hope you are chosen for whatever honours sre being given in this contest. I did enter a haiku competition this week, no physical prizes. We can compare notes at the end of the month, lol.
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Awesome! I love your poetry!
I understand the scaring yourself part of writing. I actually started a psychological thriller type story here on this blog a couple years ago. Several chapters in, I dropped it and never picked it up again. I knew where it was going (though not how it was going to get there), but it all became just a tad too real for me. Lol!
I’m not sure this blogbattle is an actual contest. It seems more about exposure and building community, reading people you’ve not read before, promoting each other, etc. All things I can easily get behind. Plus the primary challenge of pushing yourself as a writer. We know how I feel about word counts and topic prompts, after all, though this one was actually fun to write. 😁
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Then I am glad you enjoyed writing it. I have a tendency to ignore things like word counts. Whatever it takes is what it takes.
In university I was given an assignment, a fkve page essay on my choice of topic out of 5 topics. Forty-2 pages later, I got an A++, the first one my prof had ever given out. He described it as being ready for publication, if it hadn’t been a mental exercise–if it had been an actual proposal.
And then he followed it up by telling the class that A+ students do not make good social workers. In his experience they were too brainy, and not capable of empathy. What a slam to the heart and head!
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Yikes! A carrot that hits like a stick… I’m like you, usually, writing until I’ve said what I need to. Which is why this challenge was so challenging for me. Lol! But Sha’Tara inspired me to try, and I felt so proud of myself when that word count came in under the limit! There was certainly more that could be said, but I kind of like the openness of the ending, the urge it leaves in me (as a reader) to add to the story in my own mind. I think it makes it more engaging as a story.
Though it’s not a style I’m likely to develop in depth. I am too deeply rooted in the “say what you mean and mean what you say” mentality to leave most of my works so open-ended. But maybe that’s just my ego grasping for the upper hand again…
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But thank you for loving my poetry.
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Your words are magical; it is I who should be thanking you for sharing them!
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Only when one’s true identity-mind & Spirit is free of egos, like Innocent Snow White and marriageable Cinderella, can the soul begin to rise up and be free and incorruptible, no matter what befell them.
You are a wonderful EMPATHIC WRITER Lisa.
Lots of Love Sibyl X
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Thank you, Sibyl! And I agree about the need to be freed of our egos to rise above our perceived tragedies. When everything is about myself, measured against my wants, needs and resentments, it’s impossible to NOT take things personally, even if they have nothing to do with me.
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It’s called being an Empath Lisa.
When I was younger, before I knew what was the matter with, no ego confidence, me, a friend told me her mother thought that people like me were self-centered. If we were self-centered we wouldn’t give an ego’s SELFISH damn about anybody else’s worries that intrude on our lives, As if we haven’t got enough of our own. Egos usually make people pay for upsetting them so of course Sensitive minds are personally affected, and I personally dreaded ego attacks. I have had to try very hard not to dread that reply bell’s red dot, and at the same time feeling disappointed when it doesn’t appear.
I’m smiling as I say, ‘there’s no pleasing some people, is there Lisa’.
Lots of Love Sibyl X
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Oh! I would also like to add, Ms. Elyssa Campton doesn’t have an ego either, she had a few too many marbles she had to get rid of. And Jules didn’t realize that it was Enlightenment’s doing.
I hope she realizes that when we’re stripped bare, even if it’s against our will, it’s what’s left that makes us Special. If there is nothing left, then she is only human after all – the way she ran rings around Jules – I don’t think so!
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It seems to me that it was Jules who was at a loss and Elyss was completely in control of her situation. The last straw must have come: Stop! When enough is enough it’s quite common for one’s Spirit to rise up and rebel, and be confused with an ego.
Regarding XX & XY genders, I’m told that we Humane Beings are all the first X. There are feminine Xs & male Xs & androgynous Xs. The second X is an inherited pia-mater ego and the Y is a dura-mater alter-ego. Egos can be very useful or they can give us thoughts Alien to our mind, nature, wellbeing . . .
Sorry, but I just had to make myself as clear as I could for my own piece of mind.
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I appreciate the added clarity, Sibyl. No need to apologize here for expressing yourself; you are welcome here always as friend and fellow seeker… 💕
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Lol! Yes, Elyssa is a fun an admirable character. I enjoyed watching her antics as well. 😁
But my curiosity wonders just whose marbles were slipping away…? Lol!
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To answer your question?
When I was a child we called, what you call marbles, alleys (made out of glass and not the original alabaster).
So, I think it was the Cosmos engine setting free marbles trapped in a maze of blind alleys. Elyssa knew it was her Friend. Some people who don’t know we are living in the twilight zone are as blind as bats in it’s belfry and don’t know that it’s really a real Life game of chess . . .
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Love the way you put that, Sibyl! ❤️
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How right you are, Sibyl! Good thing we really only need to please ourselves, regardless of what others think. And if we can aid them along the way, as we are prone to doing, so much the better. Credit or blame, it’s what we’re good at, and what we need to do to be truly who and what we are. 💕
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Love this, Lisa. Yes, I remember that “that annoying sound” when I watched the documentary series “Wild Wild Country” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Wild_Country). I think of it as the sound of wounded people looking to others to save them, abandoning their own reason and values because it’s easier to follow a leader who suggests or tells them to do so. I also heard the sound during my own experiences living on one commune for four years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Community) and on the margins of another for two years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelle,_Illinois). Ever a skeptical seeker of “the world that could be,” I observed from the margins and tried to contribute in constructive ways only to realize there is no easy escape from personal responsibility, Leaders and group think are a bit creepy and annoying. 🙂
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They certainly are a bit creepy and annoying, I agree. Lol! And may I say I am ever fascinated by the new things I learn of your extraordinary life! You have explored and observed so much, and grown such wisdom from those experiences; that is the example I wish to set and follow… ❤️
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I enjoyed reading this so much, it’s brilliant and so original! Fantastic job 😊 x
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Thank you so much! I appreciate the encouragement. 😁
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You’re welcome 😊
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Pingback: #BlogBattle Stories: Loss | BlogBattle
I really enjoyed this piece! You use the titular sound to build great suspense throughout what is a very intriguing conversation. It actually reminds me a bit of Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” so it’s funny that others read it in a creepy/horror light. It sounds more like the cult of self-improvement, to me, haha. But I was also reminded of this quote from Toni Morrison: “We die That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Well done! Glad to see you at BlogBattle! I just did my first one last month, it’a a great group of writers/bloggers.
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Thanks so much for the comment and the encouragement! I agree about the great writers at BligBattle; I’ve loved everything I’ve read so far. And they are all so different! It’s amazing! 😁
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