Home » Poetry » Weekend Writing Prompt #133 – Longevity

Weekend Writing Prompt #133 – Longevity

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A word prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend.  How you use the prompt is up to you.  Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like.  Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise.  If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in the comments.  Thank you, Sammi for hosting this wonderful challenge.

Word Prompt

Longevity

Challenge

 

What determines longevity, in

Beings

Buildings

Business?

Including, but not limited to

Products

Performance

Passion

At what point can we declare we have reached it?

It is an arbitrary number, depending on the subject

Or situation

Our desire for things to last

Seems to go against today’s practices

It is not good for business for things to last

When did longevity take a backseat to disposability?

How awful when applied

To love

To passion

To People

 

 

 

 

 

77 thoughts on “Weekend Writing Prompt #133 – Longevity”

  2. I like your many inclusion of labials… by which I mean b’s and p’s and the occasional m, all of which offer almost musical counterpoint to harshness of longevity, with its guttural fricative. Well, I think so. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Dear Dale,

    How sad when relationships with people are considered disposable. As for longevity of things, my desktop is reminding me of its shortened lifespan. Sigh. As always you’ve put a heartfelt spin on the weekly word. Good one.

    Shalom and lotsa lingering hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Rochelle,

      It is indeed. And it takes so little for them to break. Yeah, when it comes to computers we are at the mercy of the hard drive and parts…
      So glad you liked.

      Shalom and lotsa long-lasting love!

      Dale

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Yes to cherishing the longevity of relationships, above all, including the things that are part of those relationships, and the items that we develop relationships with: for their fit, for their usage, for their relevance to who we are and the work we do.
    And also, yes to questioning the shift from longevity to disposability … I’m guilty of using some disposable things, but I am also ‘guilty’ of using some things for a good long time and not being particularly keen on tossing out things that work and that I use, just because they are older or ‘out of fashion’ or something newer had come out (case in point, my TV is a dinosaur with a VCR slot and a DVD slot, and it is still in perfect order with its little cable box as a hat).
    Great post, Dale!
    Love the repeating sounds, too, and the rhythm of it!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thank you, Na’ama! What a great comment. It frustrates me to no end that companies no longer manufacture for longevity – when you think our parents paid almost the same amount for a fridge as we do because that sucker was gonna last 25-30 years, easy.. now? Pffft.
      As for relationships, peeps hardly want to make an effort anymore…
      So glad you liked!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Me liked!
        And … yes … I’m fine with using tissues (i.e. handkerchiefs can be for emergencies … 😉 ) and some other, um, single-use items, most things don’t need to be disposable. Why not fix what’s broken? What’s wrong with some wear-and-tear? To me it gets translated into the over-emphasis on youth and unmarred-anything. As if a wrinkle is a sign of failure to get the newest thing or be the newest thing or some such oddity. I’d much rather rely on people (and things) with experience than on the fly-by-night meant-to-last-a-season things (or people…).
        Hugzees!
        Na’ama

        Liked by 1 person

        • Me so glad!
          Oh. Definitely. There are things that I will not use… handkerchiefs being one of ’em. I think it is just so sad that we have come to this. Even if we try to get something fixed, we can’t find someone who will! Or they just say it’s not worth it. Grrr. It does, when you think about it (over-emphasis on youth)
          Hugzz right back atcha!

          Liked by 1 person

          • I know … I know …
            (am with you on the handkerchief thing … let’em just stick out of corners of breast pockets for show, am fine with that …)
            And … yes, it drives me bananaroo when people refuse to fix things. A friend of mine was going to toss out a perfectly good jacket because it has a tear at the sleeve-seam. I was like: “hello, have you ever heard of needle and thread? Hand it over, give my 15 minutes and it’ll be mended!”

            Liked by 1 person

          • Hahaha! Yes!
            But it’s not even an option for many things to get ’em fixed anymore.
            As for clothes, darn tooting! If it’s still good but is undone and can be fixed without looking like a hobo, I’m in.

            Liked by 1 person

          • Yep. I know. A belt/band thing broke on my mom’s washing machine and the repair guy was like “we don’t got no parts for that no more, Ma’am. You just best get a new one.”
            UGH.
            As for clothes … “Give me your torn buttons, begging to be mended …” 😉

            Liked by 1 person

  6. Q,

    Amen sister!

    Disposable outcomes have become the new forever after. It’s an acceptable enough mindset when it comes to goods, seeing as how material things are no longer expected to “last a lifetime or your money back!”. My phone is three years old, which makes it a relic. Never mind the fact that we had a rotary phone when I was growing up that followed us in over a dozen moves with nary a problemo.

    So we said goodbye to repairmen of vacuums and television sets and transistor radios long ago. Which is when “next gen” was introduced to the lingo. Which is a nice enough sounding term for “pay up, again”.

    But you hit on it. The idea that people have adopted this mindset when it comes to others. Where a marriage “didn’t keep” and a second marriage “always had an expiration date” and a third and a fourth . . . and so it goes that way for some.

    I noticed this new way of doing ‘business’ as per relationships not long ago. When the young lady I was keeping with began waxing poetically on our love thing. It was like being doused with cold water, as she got to talking about her best friend who . .”has a bad boy too”. I had achieved “collection” status. Oy.

    Expertly crafted challenge, lovely. 🙂

    B

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Well done! I like the structure of this poem as well as its content. My initial thought on longevity is people, but things also have life spans – getting ever shorter as you point out. For me the saddest is the short longevity of my animal companions.

    Liked by 1 person

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