Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 6 and to the year 2019 which is still uncharted waters with a wealth of opportunities waiting to be snapped up. I hope we’ll make the most of it and enjoy the pleasure of words that perform the desired tricks to perfection.
With Alpha we’ll continue to share our passion for writing – be it toil or triumph. Sharing with other Alphas is always a companionable pleasure as we try out new ways together and admire results achieved by our fellow Alphas. For this first Alphaday of 2019 we have pooled together a typical Alpha feast as is our wont.
Today’s agenda is as follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The results of the photo challenge from Sarah
- The collated entries for the haiku Christmas challenge from Jackie
- The brief for Ch.5 from Morgen
- Your Log news from Sally
There’s plenty to get your teeth into and I’m sure you’ll enjoy checking it all out as it comes in.
There’s no special Alpha news today. We’ve had snippets of news from Alphas in their New Year’s greetings and somehow the ups and downs that were aired seem like a typical map of ‘life generally’. Some have been poorly, others busy with family and so on. There was much talk of snow and eventually – hurrah! – a sprinkling of it showed up … plus some black swans visiting. (There are black swans on the river Wylie in Wiltshire and you might come across Odette and Odile swimming side by side.)
The general news is dominated by Brexit and procrastination. The latter is something we writers are familiar with, but why don’t we leave it to the politicians for now, while we – for once – get on with it?
That word, ‘procrastination’, has a sneer to it; like getting your knuckles rapped. The semantically significant part of the word is the Latin word ‘cras’, meaning ‘tomorrow’. It turns out that the Spanish word ‘mañana’, which means the same thing but with the stressful part replaced by a smile and a shrug, was originally preceded by the Latin word ‘cras’ and the full expression ‘cras mane’ meant ‘early tomorrow morning’. The difference between the two expressions is that ‘procrastination’ says that ‘I won’t do it today; it’ll have to wait till tomorrow’, while ‘mañana’ means, ‘no problem, I’ll sort it out first thing tomorrow morning’. Better still: why not do it right now, today? There’s another Latin expression for that: ‘carpe diem’. That’s the one I recommend. Let’s make the most of every day. It’s surprising how much you can get done in a single day if you get on with it. Tell that to the politicians.
Best writerly wishes for 2019 to you all,
Christine