Liturgy of the Mundane Week 1 Writing Prompts
Do you know what is amazing about writing? It doesn’t have to be amazing to be worth doing. I know that you showed up here wanting to write well, but I am hoping that you will learn to just write. Regardless. Just hook into the flow of words and let them teach you.
Right now, I am writing through the idea that there is value in the mundane things of life. Do you know the myth of Sisyphus? Camus wrote a really long essay about it. Bottom line, Sisyphus makes someone with the power to curse him angry, and is cursed to spend the rest of his life pushing a boulder up a hill. Every day. Then it rolls back down. Sound familiar? Imagine this impossible scenario: you wake up on a Saturday morning deliciously late (7:45). Roll out of bed musing about what you might make for breakfast. Once you brew your first pot of tea for the day, you decide, to really start this day off right, you are going to wipe the counters. Seems like a SMART goal. Short, measurable, achievable, aaaaaand Relatively Tangible? I don’t remember. Anyway, if I were hypothetically doing this yesterday, I would have thought to myself, I would be able to start and finish wiping the counters in a Relatively Tangible amount of time. Two hours later, I finished. And. I know no one will be surprised by this, seventeen seconds later, one of my precious children asked if she could make brownies. “No!” Literally exploded out of my mouth followed by a more reasonable, “yes, if you clean up.” Which I keep saying in hopes that someday my children will hear those words and decide to. Nevermind. I’ll just rewipe the counters.
Camus’s myth asks the question, why does Sisyphus continue to choose to live in the face of such tedium. I would like to explore not only that, but does tedium, the mundanity of life, harbor value. Not value like all-things-have-value, but real hook-your-wagon-to-this-power value. I am a small energy person. If I were Sisyphus, the whole myth would center around a woman who was destined to push a small pebble around her kitchen counter every day all the while wondering how people deal with boulders. How do y’all push those boulders up those hills. Where do you find the energy? I mean, I know people who leave the house every day. How is that done?
But I am wondering if the everyday things can help us carry our pebbles. If writing about laundry and dishes and going to the park can help us find truth. So, I have a proposal for you. I am going to give us some writing prompts for each weekday. And I am going to read “The Myth of Sisyphus” and write about it in hopes that we can find something hidden in the boring stuff. If we can’t then at least for seven weeks we will have tried.
There are lots of things that are mundane, so it should be easy to find five to write about:
Monday: Everything I know about laundry…
Tuesday: What my shoes say about me…(of course)
Wednesday: When I look at my kitchen sink…
Thursday: What I saw while walking…
Friday: Thank God it isn’t Saturday…
Writing Practice Rules:
Grab a pen and paper or dictation device or computer
Write/record the prompt at the top of your page
Set a timer (you can adjust the time to suit your needs…I keep the practices short so they don’t seem overwhelming)
Take a few moments to visualize what the prompt is bringing up
Write or speak or type!! Try not to edit or criticize. Just write.
Write the details of what is coming up. I call this catching what rises.
If you get stuck, make loops with your pen or nonsense syllables with your voice or tap the keyboard
Write the details of what you are seeing until the timer goes off