Sonja's Speculations

Up first on the list for this week is a meme that features a minion at the bottom. I like minions, so this one didn’t take long to make the list. The text reads, “I used to wonder what it’d be like to read minds. Then I got a Facebook, and now I’m over it.” The truth in this meme is overwhelming. Several of my friends seem to believe they need to give an update for everything they do every day. When I first read this one, I laughed, but the laughter turned into a grimace after a moment of thought. This meme showed up in my memories for today, April 19, from four years ago in 2015. The link to this meme is here. This one was posted originally by a Facebook page called KHOP @91.5fm on April 5, 2015.

The second meme for the week showed up in my feed on Tuesday April 16, 2019. It was posted on April 16, 2019 by a Facebook page called Coffee Funnies. The text reads, “I decided to reward myself with a well-earned cup of coffee after a long, hard week. Then I realized it’s Tuesday. Morning.” I laughed at this one, because the last few weeks have been ganging up on me. By Tuesday morning I needed something stronger than coffee. However, I did get the coffee instead of liquor, and the coffee made it all better. Relatively. The link for this meme is here.

At the number three spot in this week’s list is another meme that showed up in my memories for today from last year. It was originally posted by a Facebook page called Mood Swings on April 19, 2018. The photo in the background is of an allergy medicine packet with a pocket knife laying on it. The text reads, “Q: Why does everyone in the south carry pocket knives? A: So we can our allergy meds out of the dang bullet proof bubble packs. It’s a daily struggle.” I re-shared this one today. And when I showed it to my co-workers they all agreed with it. The link for this one is here.

Meme number four is short and funny. It was shared by a friend of mine on Facebook today. Originally it came from a Facebook page called The Secret Nerd Base. This one is text on a gray chalkboard background. The text reads, “Take me down to Hai- Ku City where the grass is Green and dammit.” I guess the haiku form didn’t mesh well with Guns N Roses lyrics. But it made me laugh. The link is here.

Oh my, we’ve reached number five for the week. This meme was posted by a Facebook page called Writers Write on April 17, 2018. I re-shared it from my memories on April 17, 2019. The background picture is of a typewriter. The text reads, “Things That Make Writers Cry: 1. Carefully crafted sentences that make no sense the next day. 2. People who ask what the book’s about. 3. People who say they would also write if they just had the time. 4. Naming characters. 5. Running out of chocolate/coffee/wine. 6. Not being taken seriously. 7. Falling in love with characters who need to die. 8. Editing. 9. People who ask when the book will be published.” The link for this one is here. I agree with all of these because I’ve been in each of these situations and they are not fun. Numbers 2 and 9 make me roll my eyes every time they happen.

For this week’s rhetorical situation we’re going to look at The Things That Make Writers Cry. We’re on Facebook and I feel like the writer of this meme is trying to make writers understand that these situations happen to all of us. It’s a way of commiserating between writers. Bringing writers together and creating a community for support of each other is important in any profession/industry. Because writers are usually solitary creatures, helping any writer feel like he/she belongs to a group is an improvement. I don’t socialize very much, but I do have a group of friends who are also writers and we meet once a week every Monday. Sometimes we even talk about writing related things. When a person realizes that every writer has a hard time with some of these things, that person does not feel so alone. It feels like recently within the writing industry people believe that authors are in competition with each other for readers. And I do not believe this is true. As a reader, I do not read only one author. I read many different author’s works. At times I read more than two books at the same time. I do not understand where the competition idea is coming from, but I believe it is wrong. We writers need to support each other not tear each other apart.