Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Succinctly Yours #168: Make Like a Tree

It’s time again for Succinctly Yours over at Grandma’s Goulash, where the challenge is to use a photo as inspiration for micro fiction of 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word was "hover." This week I went for quantity over quality and came up with four:



Poor Gary was rather green…and literal. When the mean kids told him to “make like a tree and leave,” he was very careful to hover and do exactly as they’d asked. 131

Gary’s mother really wasn’t one to hover…or exaggerate. When she told him he would sprout potatoes if he didn’t take a bath soon, she really meant it. 124

When finished shooting Lord of the Rings, Gary feared he was typecast as an Ent. Though he didn’t like to hover, he took a job in the studio parking lot. 125

When finished playing an Ent in Lord of the Rings, Gary took a gig so far off Broadway, he was technically hovering in Central Park. 124



The last word in ignorance is the person who says of an animal or plant, ‘What good is it?...If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part of it is good, whether we understand it or not….Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. ~Aldo Leopold, as quoted in Environmental Science/Eleventh Edition.
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10 comments:

  1. Sioux RoslawskiJune 10, 2014 at 5:41 PM

    Tammy--So, did you remember and know--without looking them up--that those giant tree creatures in LOTR were called "Ents"?

    If so, I truly bow down to you (which is not the first time I've done that).

    I'd say you put out quantity AND quality. (It's a really cool photo.)

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    1. TammyJune 10, 2014 at 7:26 PM

      Sioux, I had a son who was enormously into LOTR. Keep in mind this didn't mean one little movie, either, but books and games and action figures and many, many sequels and even prequels. The stage lasted a decade at least - heck, with The Hobbit, it's still going on. As a mother of a son, you should be looking down in pity...that is, except for a nice, juicy bone mothers everywhere were thrown called Viggo Mortensen. ;)

      Delete
  2. ValJune 10, 2014 at 6:36 PM

    I enjoyed your takes on The Old Man and the Tree.

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  3. Pat WahlerJune 10, 2014 at 6:40 PM

    Clever as always. My fav is story #2.

    Pat
    Critter Alley

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    Replies
    1. TammyJune 10, 2014 at 7:31 PM

      I think we can all say that Gary's mother should have hovered a little more, huh? Thanks so much for stopping by, Pat!

      Delete
  4. Lisa Ricard ClaroJune 11, 2014 at 1:02 PM

    Wow, you were on a roll! You had me with the first one which cracked me up. Poor Gary! So eager to please. Thanks for posting---I look forward to reading your micros.

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  5. TammyJune 11, 2014 at 5:19 PM

    Thanks for visiting, Lisa!

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  6. LynnJune 13, 2014 at 9:55 PM

    Not one, but four! They were all excellent. Love the picture.

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  7. UnknownJune 14, 2014 at 10:51 PM

    I beg to differ, you've achieved quality, quantity and a huge dose of humor too. I chuckled through them all and am still smiling.

    ReplyDelete

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