A woman is driving along the highway and two teenagers pull alongside her car at a stoplight. They motion for her to toll down her window. She figures they need directions, but then they ask her, ”If you could do anything in this world, what would it be?” An important question that requires careful thought. Think now, then write, what would you answer?
Write a note to your future self — it could be who you are in five or 10 or more years, depending on what you feel.
What do you want to say to your future self? Who do you want to be? How do you want to live? Begin:
Dear Future Self,
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who became a global conscience for climate change and environmental activism, has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. What do you think of her?
“She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told the show, adding that Thunberg is the magazine’s youngest choice ever to be named Person of the Year.
Thunberg quickly bloomed into one of the world’s most notable climate change activists after protesting alone outside the Swedish Parliament during school hours on Fridays when she was 15. The teen held up a now universally recognized hand-painted sign that read “skolstrejk för klimatet,” which translates to “School strike for the climate.”
Her initiative to strike galvanized students to protest against climate change throughout Europe and that momentum quickly fanned across the globe, becoming the “Fridays For Future.”
How do you feel about Greta? Does she deserve the honor? What have you learned from her efforts? Would you have nominated someone else for Time’s Person of the Year for 2019?
One Sunday afternoon, alone in your room, you write the first draft of the rest of your life. What is your vision of yourself in the future?
When he was alive the great song writer Leonard Cohen treated his audience to a recitation from a piece still in progress; he began:
Listen to the hummingbird
Whose wings you cannot see
Listen to the hummingbird
Don’t listen to me
Now, the completed hummingbird song appears on Cohen’s posthumous new album, ”Thanks for the Dance.”
So, let’s say you haven’t yet heard the new album. As a creative writing exercise, why not write the next four lines you would like to see in the song? Then, at some point, you can compare what Cohen wrote with your own offering.
Please write the song that flows from your heart.
What would be in your perfect dream house?