Romantic Nonfiction

MM: Please tell me a JNET story.

JNET: Of what genre would you like your story in? :) Would you like to hear the JNET fairy tale story? the adventure one? the ???? one? Name it... and you will have a story :)

MM: Romantic nonfiction please.

A blog entry and exercise just for my friend MM.

ROMANTIC NONFICTION

ROMANTIC: 1. suggestive of the world of romance (jnetsworld is that and a bag of chips!) 2. characterized by a preoccupation with love or by the idealizing of love or one's beloved (living IS loving for a negativity slayer) 3. displaying or expressing love or strong affection (mwuah mwuah mwuah) 4. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a style of literature and art that subordinates form to content, encourages freedom of treatment, emphasizes imagination, emotion, and introspection, and often celebrates nature, the ordinary person, and freedom of the spirit (JNET is INTJ) 5. of or pertaining to a musical style characteristic chiefly of the 19th century and marked by the free expression of imagination and emotion, virtuosic display, experimentation with form, and the adventurous development of orchestral and piano music and opera.... (What would Beethoven do? is JNET's favorite question)

NONFICTION: the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and the essay

MM, here is my narrative imaginative introspective.

JNET has been romancing life. You can go through the archives. I've romanced over music; surrendering seasons to Debussy and Albeniz and writing about travels to exotic places around the world to taking pictures of sharks, hiking various urban meccas and diving out of planes.

I've studied tango and salsa but I REALLY want to study flamenco dance. I bought the special shoes and everything but somehow get pulled into social dancing circles that have nothing to do with flamenco dance. Salsa and tango are just irresistible flirts when its really flamenco that I have my eyes (or feet) set on. Meanwhile, I do dance and perform with Kayamanan Ng Lahi, a folks arts group of my peeps from my nick of the pacific. Rehearsal and performance are exercise disciplines.

Its all about writing, teaching the piano, and photography at the given moment. And my dance partner is LIFE.

What kind of romantic nonfiction is THAT?

In other words, onay on the oyfriendbay estionquay :)

I have my muse... who I call the mathematician. I won't write about him at this given moment but I do credit a good deal of my work through the years on account of his counsel and inspiration.

And who needs an oyfriendbay henway my orldway is urroundedsay by so anymay amazing riendsfay, amilyfay embersmay and ovinglay eoplepay?

There's a long story, you see. A good one. Life has me on the edge of my seat. I hadn't quite got the dance of work and true love down but the choreography is being drawn up. Just going for whatever I am going for will pan everything just right in its own timing or God's timing if we want to get specific here :)

Life definitely has a WOW factor over me. Every day has a sense of anticipation and promise. There are just too many coincidences happening on a regular basis that I am fascinated.... I am in a sense "romancing life" and sharing it with someone special is in the works for this happily ever after girl.

From the serene spartan world of the mathematician and imaginative world of candy wax cutie to taking a splash in a shark cage, I can't say that I feel like I'm missing something or someone in my romantic nonfiction story in the making. Everything is in place, I'm just working out my lines on stage and wondering how it all fits together - the future is in the making. May the force be with you as it is with me.

MM. How is this for a chapter of romantic nonfiction?

Cheers. Its a little bit more substance than JNET: single, social butterfly.

JNET

TOASTMASTERS: Securing the Good Life

If it is in man's heart to be inherently good, then why do we work hard to teach goodness? So many ways to say the Golden Rule:

Islam: "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you."

Confucianism: "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."

Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Ancient Eygpt: "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another"

I wonder if our idealistic notions over innocence and goodness undermine the mindfulness and practice it takes to secure a good life. Do we teach our young people to steal or do we have to teach them to not steal? Do we teach them to hit each other or do we have to teach them to not hit each other? Why do we need to teach people to not lie, not steal, and not harm one another? Perhaps goodness is not quite child's play.

Why bother with learning to live on purpose? There are books, retreats, seminars to attend toward securing the good life. Why so many breaths to ask, "Is this your very best you?"

What is good anyway? Isn't it the equivalent of being boring? Really now, is goodness a desired trait? Perhaps that is why we romance drama, sit on the edge of our seats for heartaches and make bets or cheer over knockouts.

Do we intend toward life going down or up?

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests. My name is JNET and I am presenting my 10th speech tonight titled Securing the Good Life. I hope to inspire you in my final speech completing the Competent Communicator Manual on this final month of the year, to secure the good life, hopefully keeping you on Santa's good side but most importantly your nearest and dearest good side.

Since goodness seems more like a practice or exercise as opposed to this spring of wonderfulness that just bubbles out of us, I will present securing the good life as a stretching exercise.

Everyone breathe. In... out. My first consideration for you is that goodness must begin firstly as an inside job. So breathe. We may have distracting thoughts in just breathing. I'm sure you have found yourself assaulted by them in your stillness. With each exhale, acknowledge that you can overcome doubts and fears. You are an intelligent and creative person created by an intelligence of which you are just a squeaky possibility that can go beyond just feeling and looking good. In this "breathing exercise" consider that you are not just a brownie point earning being but rather you are a vessel for the expression of goodness. Securing the good life begins with allowing the inside job of transformation.

Now everyone stretch. Stretching feels good. Doesn't it. How far do you enjoy your stretches in loving your life and the people in it? Stretching is a way to extend and connect to others. The good life does not come from sitting still and enjoying your transformation all by yourself. So we stretch and we stretch with purpose.

So is securing the good life as easy as breathing and stretching? How many of you exercise regularly every single day? How many of us still need to get those lessons our parents kept reprimanding us over? Don't hurt each other. Don't play too rough. Share!

We live in a world that likes to make fun of goodness and sensationalize badness. Securing the good life can get lost in your next distracted breath and from there we get too busy to stretch. Listen to your personal trainer, listen to your parents. Being on the team is a daily choice. Sometimes it may call for challenging choices like making a stand for yourself and preserving what you believe in. That can be very scary. Isn't it natural to want to run from fear and pain? Isn't that how we are wired?

Consider the ermine. This pretty animal's coat turns pure white during the winter. During other seasons its coat is brown and it is a called a stoat. In art, the ermine is a symbol of purity and the white coat is highly prized. But is this symbol of purity simply about its snow white pretty looks?

Hunting this creature down is interesting. It travels mostly alone and finds shelter in dens. Hunters look for these dens and coat the edges with tar or something sticky before chasing down the ermine. Why? Because when chased it will not go into its den where it will ruin its coat. The ermine will instead face the hunters, the dogs.

How many of us in this natural kingdom of ours face our aggressors? How would that set us apart? Breathe, stretch and make a stand to secure the good life.

JNET