Wandering Thoughts of a Writer: humanity

Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book. The first chapter gripped me in a whirlwind of feelings: interest, suspense, disgust, and anger. I have zero tolerance for someone forcing their will on others unless the other party gives her permission to do so. However, the main character in Girl Trade is surprised and a bit horrified to discover how sexually responsive her body is to the abuse of a heavy-handed Arab.

At the beginning of the tale, the main character has a great job in London and loads of friends. Now single she decides to go on holiday to figure out what she wants out of life. While on the beach, sunning in the nude, on an impulse she swims to another island where she’s captured and forced by Arabs to do degrading things right there. What the Arab does to her is appalling, but the brilliance of Chloe’s writing and her crafty way of allowing us as readers to be inside the main character’s head dulled the hatred I felt toward this man.

Girl Trade is about self-discovery in a horrid situation. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone because of the obscene, sadomasochistic scenes that play out in the story. However, the deep psychology that bleeds through each page is raw and unyielding, only a person with a deep insight into humanity can write such a tale. The story is well-written, poetic, and stitched together by a rare artist of our time, who not only knows how to weave a compelling story but is insightful—a thinker, like Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her books should be mandatory to read in college—especially if you’re majoring in psychology or something along those lines. Students should have to write a report on it and group discussions should follow. Chloe is that good. If you’re not a bubble-head, you’ll appreciate her style. You’ll get the metaphors, the underlining meanings, and the unapologetic truths regarding our human nature, to where you’ll be driven to read her other books and become a fan for life.

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Trade-length-adventure-Romance-ebook/dp/B008GGA5EQ/

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Trade-length-adventure-Romance-ebook/dp/B008GGA5EQ/

#erotica, #self-discovery, #sex, #sexual content., hostage, humanity, kidnapped, 2 Comments

Everyone is guilty of shifting blame on others. I don’t care who you are. I think it’s innate within us.

Why?

I don’t know.

Blame shifting in our society is way out of hand, and it’s disheartening.

A woman spills scolding hot coffee while she’s in the car and burns herself.

Hello! Your dumbass knows it’s hot.

What does she do?

She sues McDonalds and wins a million dollars.

Instead of taking the blame for her own mistake, she shifts it onto McDonalds.

A thief is in the process of robbing a house during the night. He slips and falls and breaks his leg.

What does he do?

He sues the family he was about to rob and wins!

Un-believe-able.

I can go on and on, stating case after case, but let’s move forward before we both get annoyed by the stupidity of it all.

I normally don’t do these types of posts; however, after five months of dealing with blame shifters I can’t keep quiet any longer.

*WARNING! I’m going to vent for a minute*

I manage a propane company. This winter has been insane. It’s been the coldest winter we’ve had in a long ass time. We had a shortage of propane in the fall, then the price of it went through the roof. I’m talking $5.00 a gallon. So a hundred gallons cost five hundred frickin’ dollars.

Wowsers!

Fortunately the owner of where I work was smart enough to squirrel away some propane beforehand. We were able to keep the price per gallon at $3.89, whereas our competitors were way higher. But still, we had to ration it out and people were not happy. To make a long story short, there were customers who blamed the owners for purposely hiking up the price so they can live the high life.

Not true.

I ran into one of these numnuts on my day off, and I lit his ass up. Of course, I did it in a diplomatic way. I didn’t rip his head off or anything, but I told him the truth . . . No, my boss is not purposefully jacking up the price so he can make a huge profit and live a luxurious life. When he goes to the pipeline, he has to pay the astronomical price plus fees on top of that.

Then there were other customers who still owed on their accounts, never made an attempt to pay it and demanded to have their propane tanks filled.

What?

If they would have even made an effort to pay, even if they could only afford like $50.00 a month, I would have worked with them.

Now we move onto the people who never even prepared for the heating season and shifts the blame on us for their own problems. They even resort to trying to guilt us into giving them propane.

WTF?

Okay, venting over. J

The point is, this world would be a better place if everyone took responsibility for their actions and life. But everyday I’m seeing more and more people blaming others for their problems.

Will this ever end?

How do we stop this nonsense?

You know, I could totally blame my mom for not being a proper mother and how far behind in life I am in some things because of it. I’m not going to though, because you know what? I decided to take responsibility for my life, and I’m doing far better than she was when she was my age.

I’m proud of myself.

I did it.

On my own.

Yeah, I think my writing career would be booming right now if she would have done a lot of things differently, but oh well. I’m not going to cry about. I’ll just keep pursuing my goals.

Anyway, I’m not tooting my own horn. I just brought up my own situation as an example of what I’m saying.

I’m concerned where as a human race we’re headed.

I’m worried about a lot of stuff that's going on in our world, but I think if we took responsibility for our own lives things would start to get better.

Maybe I’m too much of an optimist.

I still have hope.

I’ve seen people pull together during a catastrophe.

When a tornado barreled through my town a few years ago, it was frightening. It did a lot of damage, but we all pulled together and not one person I know of blamed or tried to sue anyone for their misfortune.

So, yeah, I still have hope for us all.

blame shifting, hope, humanity, poison, 0 Comments

A guy on Google Plus raised a question the other day about Facebook and it got me thinking about the whole social media thing. He talked about joining Facebook and then deleting his account. He went back and forth several times. He’d hop on the popular social network merry-go-round and then hopped off. The last I heard he decided to stay off for good because he felt it was an addictive and unhealthy habit to have. He had the presence of mind to step out of the box he was in and saw the whole picture as this: instead of physically going out into the real world to converse with others, he found himself glued to the computer and interacting with people in the digital realm.

So are virtual friends real friends?

Last week a writer friend of mine mentioned she was going to shut down her Facebook page because she was tired of her books being ignored. When I read her post, I started to cry. I didn’t want her to leave. I considered her my friend, someone I connected with who shared the same sense of humor as me and made me laugh. I responded right away, telling her not to leave and blah, blah, blah. Afterward, I logged off and talked to Kevin about it. His reaction to me crying over a digital comrade was concern. He personally thinks they’re not true or real friends. The reason why he feels this way is because they can unfriend you without batting an eye, and in his opinion, a majority of them are narcissistic and false. He told me people on the internet say things to others that they would never have the balls to say to their face. It’s all bullshit he thinks and this boom in technology is robbing us of our humanity.

Is Kevin right?

After he was done talking to me, I felt worse. I mean, I consider the authors I converse with online my friends. I love them. They’re great. But then Kevin threw a wrench into my digital bubble. He popped it, forcing me to look beyond it.

Here’s what I’ve discovered and how I personally feel about social media:

1.) Not everybody is your buddy, even though you may think so.

I had a wonderful critique partner whom I considered a good friend, and I loved how she wrote. But then one day she bailed on me. The only reason I could think of was when I critiqued one of her chapters I told her she needed to get rid of most of her "thats." I don’t know if she got butt hurt over my suggestion or what. She shouldn’t have, though. I mean, she knew how much I loved her stories and how she told them.

So don’t get too attached to people thinking they’re your buddies. However, there is a chance they can turn into genuine friends, but you just don’t know. It’s a risk; however, it's one I’m willing to take because I’ve already met and connected with some cool people in the literary world who understands what I’m going through as a writer. I just have to keep in mind that one day most of them will vanish without saying a word. It happened to me before, and it’ll happen again.

2.) Technology is robbing us of our humanity.

We as humans are not designed to sit on our butts all day in front of a computer, TV, or video game. Our bodies are supposed to be active and out in the real world enjoying the sun and nature. We’re supposed to interact with other people face to face and form bonds on a personal level.

I’ve noticed some of the teenagers who spend most of their time texting, have a short attention span and can’t hold a conversation. You try to explain something to them, and they have a blank look on their faces. Not all teenagers are like that, but enough to concern me. I personally think those who choose to communicate a majority of their waking hours texting is reprogramming their brains to accept another form of interaction. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

Kevin told a teenage boy who is constantly on his cell phone texting, to do a task at his place of employment. The kid didn’t understand what Kevin was telling him. Kevin tried to explain it again and still the teen couldn’t comprehend what was being asked of him. That night Kevin told me about it. I advised him the next time he needed to tell this teenager what to do to speak to him like he would if he were texting him–in short sentences. Make it simple. Well, Kevin did what I suggested, and you know what? The kid understood.

WTF?

Our children are losing the social skills needed to thrive not only in this world but as a human being, and it scares me.

3.) I don’t hate social media or the internet.

I personally think social media is a good thing IF you don’t allow it to consume your life. I love to be able to connect with like-minded people, and we can learn from each other. I love to communicate with my fans, my friends in Arizona and family. I love all of it. I also think it’s awesome if I want to find out something I can Google it.

To sum it all up, this new form of communication is great and gives us opportunities we’ve never had before. However, like food and alcohol, if you abuse it, it’ll destroy you physically and mentally. So it’s a balancing act. Be aware of your portions and how much you consume, otherwise you’ll be allowing social media and the internet for that matter, rob you of your humanity. And none of us wants that, right?

　

　