The words flowed freely after I had coffee.

Hello Hive friends. Time flies by so fast. It feels like Christmas is coming soon along with the joys and stresses associated with the season. Here in the Philippines, since we begin the celebrations once the "ber" months arrive, it brings a positive note to an incredibly chaotic world that we live in.

So, I'm going back to my freewriting because I need another push to get me back to the rhythm of writing. I've been talking about this for the longest time and it's still a subject matter I write about and am deeply invested in. Partly because it is an ongoing issue every writer encounters from time to time. Partly because my creative process almost always begins with this: an idea or character in a particular situation. Or maybe something that I want to promote, such as financial literacy or wealth building or the vegetarian lifestyle. Anything. But freewriting about it. Sometimes, everything becomes crystal clear after a paragraph or two. At other times, it stays in the drafts folder for a long time before I decide to continue to work on it or rewrite it altogether. It's an interesting (and mysterious) process, for sure.

Then there are those times when I just want to rant or use the creative process as a way to vent out my stresses in life or observations. Being on social media, the algorithm may send different things your way and it can be frustrating. These days, I am being flooded by content about politics and what's happening in the world. Wars, calamities and destruction sells and that's what's fueling these monster apps. I can't say that we aren't part of the problem in this equation. We love controversy and can be easily manipulated. I can't count the number of times when I was so sure of my stance on a particular issue or personality and it turns out that the complete opposite is true.

Here in my country, the news feeds (mine at least) has been bombarded with news about the missing people involved in cock fighting with a witness pointing to a famous actress and gambling lord as allegedly the masterminds or part of the group who had them executed by active police personnel. It's crazy if this were true and shows how low the moral and ethical standards of society have gone.

That recent events in our political landscape have been troubling, to put it mildly, seem to support this assumption. The vice president has been impeached by congress and the senate seemingly derailing the process is even wilder. We have stooped so low that ripples of these events will be surely felt by future generations. And it seems like only a miracle can untangle the web of lies, deceit and corruption in the institutions we should be depending upon to keep us safe and safeguard our interests as a people.

I can say that writing can be a lot of things for me, depending on the time and situation, how I was feeling at that moment or deadlines for a writing project. This post is a mixture of rant and freewriting along with social commentary based on observations according to social media. Am I influenced by it? For sure. What happens next is different for every one. I can be angered or upset or sad about these things, but it can also be fuel that lights a fire inside. To be a better person, to take a look inside and see what it looks like. Do I have the same corrupt and murderous mindset or not. Do I prefer to just ignore these things because it doesn't affect me directly, or doesn't it? At this point I think it's clear that what happens in the world around affects us because of how connected we are to each other. US politics directly affect us. Political corruption affect us. But we also have an effect the world. In the end, how we think, how we act and and respond will ultimately decide the future of the world we live in. And it is our responsibility to our children to bequeath a world better than what it is now. Otherwise...

For those of us who have, or are planning to have children, what kind of world would you like them to grow up in? It is up to us to imagine and help create this world.

And that is my blog for today. It turned out so different from what I had initially wanted but I'm happy that I was able to get some ideas out and hopefully help us to start a conversation or introspection at the very least.

If you made it this far, I highly appreciate your time and effort. Wishing you all a fun and rejuvenating weekend.

Love and peace,
@juanvegetarian

_{*I own the text and images used in this blog post.}