I probably don't know you. But if you're reading this, I love you.
If you're reading this, you're the kind of person who reads messages in bottles. Maybe you're naturally curious. Maybe you're the kind of person who thinks that they can offer help to a stranger in need. Maybe you're lonely. Heck, maybe you're just the kind of person that picks trash up off of the street. If you're any of those people, I love you.
I decided last night that I needed to start warming up my keyboard every day with a little improvisational writing. That's a muscle that I need to stretch for any number of reasons: to get better, to engage my social media, to get myself out of thinking strictly about WRITING AS A COMMODITY.
Lucky for me, one of my best friends from high school sent me a book of writing prompts for...my birthday? Christmas? It was for an occasion. Anyway, with everything going on in the world and in my life, I haven't really taken the time to pick it up and use it until now.
The first prompt was, What would I put in a message in a bottle? Who would I want to read that message?
My instinct was to try and turn this into a piece of short fiction...but then I asked myself, Why? These are questions about me, after all, and so I decided to write a little something about me.
What would I put in a message in a bottle? I love you.
Who would I want to read that message? Someone that needed or deserved to hear it.
Those are nice thoughts...but I can have them because today, at this moment, despite all that's going on in my life and in the world, I don't need rescuing. My life-preserver is asleep in the other room. I have my wife and my writing and I don't need much else at the moment. I don't need saving.
But maybe you do. Maybe my love is your life-preserver today...and if it is, then I'm glad you're the sort to pick up a bottle on the beach.
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