1. Imagine a town that takes pride in _________________________
Prompt: The town you live in truly prides itself on [ ? ]. But recently, something is different.
- What changed?
- Who caused it?
- Is there a resolution?
2. Finding ancient mysteries
Prompt: You are on an archeological team in [ LOCATION ], you are looking for [ ? ]. A team member tells you they are very concerned...Why are they concerned? Is it an immediate concern or longer term concern? Personal? Or related to your mission?
3. Finding your adventure
Prompt: Believing in all the history and mythos of pirates, one day you "finally" announce to your family that you are "off to sail the open seas"... as a pirate! But there is a problem with your plan....
Example:
Written by Roger Deschenes:
"You think it’s easy being me? Welp, buckle up, buttercups
Right now, I’m suffering from a genetic and terminal case of the “good work jacket” paradox
Coupla years ago, now, over there at Amesbury Industrial Supply (and on Small Business Saturday) I treated myself to a Grundens winter work jacket.
As a winter work jacket The Grundens is perfect. P E R F E C T
Look at that collar! It’s practically a cowl. When it’s all zipped up the collar meets the edge of your wooly watch or Sox cap and protects your ears and the back of your neck from winters worst.
Look how high up onto the collar the dense warm soft fleece liner comes. And the sleeves! Insulated quilted nylon— right up to the shoulder so your arms can slip and move inside the jacket with free range of motion.
And the sleeves are an extra long so your wrists are never really exposed to cold. The nylon shell and stiching are super tough. But somehow the fabric is really supple and not terribly slippery. Great drape! The jacket moves with you. And is wicked water resistant.
It’s a miracle of material, thread configuration and design.
And pockets within pockets!
Theres a pocket that seems purposely designed for your emergency Swiss-made work knife. You put that knife in there. Forget you did so. And then when there’s an emergency you remember the knife. Perfect
It’s like the good people at Grundens sat me down and said, “ Roger, we want to make you a work jacket. Whattaya want?”
And that’s not that far from the truth.
Grundens is named for the Swedish commercial fisherman who, about a hundred years ago, started making his own foul weather gear for work-life out there on the North Sea (or Baltic?).
And since then, Grundens has made and continues to make some of the best gear there is.
(It’s what those idiots on deadliest catch should be wearing if they didn’t drink up all their pay from crabbin season)
Interestingly, and not at all coincidentally, the Grundens origin-story and the Helly Hansen origin-story are almost the exact same. Except Helly Hansen is Norwegian.
And in recent years, HH moved from commercial fishing gear to work gear in general and sports gear, as well.
It’s all wicked good stuff. In fact, my favorite work jacket of all time was a Helly Hansen anorak that was originally designed for skiing and snowboarding
I got it, deeply discounted, at TJ’s. And I wore that thing for years and years.
Infact, the only reason Im not still wearing it is because unknown to me some deck finish tipped over in the back of the van way back when soaked the HH thru and dried out to become a solid mass
Thats a Helly Hansen on the right— one for sale on Fb market place
At this point, if youre sane, you’re saying “Roger, this post is excruciatingly boring and I don’t detect a paradox. Wear your Grunden’s work jacket for the purposes for which it was designed ”
Believe me, I would like to do just that. But I am the son grandson and great grandson of very humble hardworking and lets just say “frugal”French Canadiens peoples.
And the Grundens is just too good to wear to work and ruin.
For me, it’s become the equivalent of my Memeres good dishes. Those dishes sat in the China Cabinet and only came out on the most special of special occasions.
In the mean time, Memere insisted on drinking her tea from the everyday cup she chipped, once, and only once, while washing it. Jesus. These are my People.
And that there is the paradox— the perfect work jacket is too perfect to wear to work.
The closest it has come to work is riding around in the truck with me.
I would look pretty grizzled, ruggedly good (and warm) doing so but that jacket ain’t gettin up on no ladder to clean no gutters.
Cant bring myself to do it. Memeres good dishes and her chipped tea cup are too much with me.
So whats a fella to do. Go on Fb marketplace, thats what.
And find the perfect Helly Hansen work jacket that used to be somebody’s perfect ski jacket but because its second hand it wont be like my Memeres good dishes which were too good actually use
So problem solved? Yes? No. Not at all. Thats too easy and thats not me
It’s that “frugal” part, it’s down deep in my bones. I start adding up the (very very) reasonable cost of my Grundens and the cost of Helly Hansen and the next thing you know im hearing my inner Pepere say to me loud and clearly,
“Thats a whole lot of money to spend on one jacket that youre going to work-in and another thats going to hang in the closet. Roger, you shoulda bought that no nonsense oversized, (good for latering) water resistant, Red Kap work hoodie when you saw it at Mahdens”
And so, that there, is the “good work jacket paradox”. The one jacket is too good for me to wear and the other jacket thru the arithmetic of ancestry becomes too espensive for me to buy.
And thats why it aint easy being me"
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