100/50 Words

The Purple Between Red and Blue

Thrifty Words 100 #18 & Fifty Words Challenge #39: Moderation

Politics aside blue has always been my favorite color.

This week’s challenge: moderation isn’t necessarily about politics (unless you wish to make it so).

These days when I hear the words red, blue, purple, or moderate I immediately think politics. I live in the U.S. after all.

For much of my life, nothing was done in moderation. Everything was extreme. Everything was more. “More is more” was my philosophy. More money, more candy, more escape, more books, more drugs. Just give me more!

The older I get, the more moderate I become. “Less is more,” or at least “some is more,” has become my everyday. I have some money. Some is a lot more than many people have. Some candy is fine with me. Some escape once every few years in the form of a vacation is great and when I can’t afford a vacation I can escape into some books.

I no longer use illicit drugs, but if I did I would like to think I would use them in moderation. And don’t for a minute think the cravings are gone. They aren’t and I doubt they ever will be. But the cravings are only moderate these days.

I think of a moderate as somebody in between. Neither here nor there. Neither red nor blue. Just purple.

.Ideologically, I am still an extremist. I am extremely liberal (in case you hadn’t noticed). My punk rock anarchist tendencies simmer in the background while I have modified my behavior to societal norms. Mostly.

For the past 11 years, my community has seen me as a citizen and would be shocked to learn of my blue mohawk and heroin addiction, hanging out on Hollywood street corners panhandling for the next beer, for the next fix. These days I hang out at the local library and indulge in escapism by checking out a moderate number of books. I go home and make goat’s milk caramels and eat a moderate number of them before mailing them off to family members across the country.

Do you believe in moderation? Let us know in this week’s Thrifty Words challenge.

Moderation: 100 or 50 Words. Go!

Need some inspiration? Here’s last week’s Thrifty words Roundup.

Please choose either the fifty-word or 100-word challenge, not both. See the guidelines for your chosen challenge below.

https://readmedium.com/100-words-submission-guidelines-6b5a7086e6ad

https://readmedium.com/50-words-submission-guidelines-86eb3008735

Remember, in order to be considered for the challenge, you need to write exactly 100 or 50 words (contractions such as ‘you’ll’ and ‘y’all’ count as one, as do articles ‘a’ and ‘the’ and all 23 auxiliary verbs ‘am’ ‘is’ ‘are’ etc. Hyphenated words count as one word.) The editors reserve the right to add or remove words to ensure the exact word count. Please keep an eye on your tags as laid out in the submission guidelines above.

Use the kicker 100 WORDS or 50 WORDS and ‘Thrifty Words 100 Challenge #18: Moderation or ‘Fifty Word Challenge #39: Moderation as your subtitle and submit by 6:00 pm.EST on Friday, 28th May. All stories submitted by the deadline will be released the following morning in the weekly roundup.

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