Value
The Prompt
by @zeldacroft
There was still a coolness in the air as Thomas walked through the park. The warming sun was about to break over the old maples by the playground, a golden gradient emanating from behind the treetops into the azure skies above him. Beautiful, he thought. He strolled on with the energy only a morning person could muster and made his way to the poolside locker rooms.
Once inside, he changed into his usual bathing suit and crammed his gym bag into one of the lockers. They were cramped and who knows how old, the sort designed for longevity over function. But Thomas quickly moved on, shivering slightly from stepping on the cold tile.
Now on the marginally warmer concrete, he examined the area before diving in. You never know with a community pool, he remembered. Pretty soon he’d have fallen leaves to contend with, but for now the water was actually fairly clean. Past the little fence around the pool deck Thomas saw someone walking their dog a little farther in the park. Not exactly private, he conceded, but at least it’s quiet.
My continuation
Thomas dove smoothly into the cold water, relishing its velvety feel on his skin. It was always a relief to enter a pool, replacing the bath of empty air outside with the bath of all-enveloping water within. Sounds were muted, and his vision was mostly of the bottom of the pool punctuated by regular but quick glimpses of the water's surface whenever he lifted slightly to take a breath.
Here was a mindfulness he could only experience while swimming, when he chose to focus purely on his breath and leave all other thoughts behind.
He would feel the cool air pass his slightly parted lips, warming a bit as it moved through his throat. Ah, the inhale, when even his eyes relaxed. He would know-but-not-know the moment when his breath switched from inhale to exhale, then feel his lungs slowly deflate as the air bubbled back out through his lips. A turn of the head, and the process began again. The few thoughts that came to him of swimming were effortlessly let go, irrelevant. Even the swoop and turn at the pool's edge, when he could feel-but-not-feel his body as one divine wing, was insignificant in the presence of his breath.
An empty early morning pool was his holy space.
This is my entry to https://steempeak.com/wewrite/@freewritehouse/we-write-5-a-morning-swim-last-week-s-winner-announced.
It's been a week of steem introspection for me. What constitutes value? It seems to me the fork has made an unfortunate but predictable move in conflating payout with value. I am a one year steemian, I am learning how to use my written voice just as many others of us are.
For me the Fork, my first, has been a massive mind fuck. I am considering writing an unhappy puppy post about the fork in my back, but I fear retribution by downvote. What is this witchery? It's not right.
I happen to have posted the best post I have ever written a few days ago and only @adsactly of the Bigs even noticed. Thank you! I love you guys @adsactly!
I have been hesitant to publish this week, not sure if what I put here is good enough.This freewrite is no exception. In this I was trying to improve my descriptive skills - description is something I avoid. It sounds good to me, but is it?
There is no image because I have already spent in excess of two hours on this post. I hope you can provide your own image. For those of you who think a post without a picture (@esteem) is not good enough, I wish you all the best. I wish that too for all you whales out there "curating", but I'd like to ask you, what do you make in two hours of watching the numbers, hitting some keys and not reading a thing?
Present company excepted. Thank you so much for reading my work.
I think it's clear from the interaction on your posts that people are reading them and find them stimulating enough to want to comment.
As to this piece, yes, I think it's good but I agree with quillfire, the word eyeballs stopped me in my tracks and conjured up a horrible image.
hahahahaha! All right then, I'm going back in and changing all the problems. I can't have people stopping in their tracks. Thanks for that comment!
Yes I am delighted with the conversation on my posts, thanks too for pointing that out. I have so much to learn still about what matters and what does not.
Thanks for mentioning eSteem app. Kindly join our Discord or Telegram channel for more benefits and offers on eSteem, don't miss our amazing updates.
Follow @esteemapp as well!
I think you've done a great job with this prompt, and your descriptive skills on display are just fine! I hope things smooth out with the HF changes. I'm not sure where I stand on them yet, but I certainly don't get some of what they're attempting to do.
I know I'm working harder to make ends meet. My upvote value is actually nill on many of the samller accounts I used to upvote. I might try to go into tips instead for those in addition to upvotes so at least the author gets SOMETHING. Massive damage has been done to small accounts. It's not good if the children are not healthy.
Howdy owasco! I think this is a wonderful freewrite and you are proving yourself to be a fine writer! As far as the hardfork, I have a wait and see attitude but so far it doesn't look like it's helping anyone but the whales.
I KNOW it hasn't helped me, but it has made me work differently. Silver linings in everything, but I am not loving working harder for less. That there is sticking in my craw.
I agree as do 95% of Steemians and so many people are posting less for good reason. I'll probably be forced to reduce my time here unless they come up with other ways for the little guy to make money. I don't know if we can curate enough to make up for the loss in posting.
Since our money is no longer worth as much as it was before (in curating the low payout posts especially) I'd say they've created a ghetto for the small accounts to pat each other on the backs in (our money is nearly worthless in the ghetto) and hope for some charity from a Big. No Bigs have noticed my work since the fork. You?
Howdy today owasco! That is a great name for the situation of the small accounts, the "ghetto" ..that's a perfect description. No, no whales have even noticed my work except one..well, one time I got a $10 upvote from a whale.
I don't think they like history. lol. Plus I've heard that almost all of them are liberals so they don't like Christian or conservative views so they wouldn't like my posts anyway.
Several people have bugged me for a long time to go over to weku but I wanted to see how it worked out over there first. Have you looked at other platforms?