DMB Digest: Swap Moderator for Shrink
DMB Digest: Swap Moderator for Shrink
And Other Reasons Why Questions Are Better Than Yelling
The wife and I lasted three whole minutes into the most recent presidential-exercise-in-high-blood-pressure before we looked at each other, shook our heads, and went back to reading our perspective books. I’m honestly pretty surprised one or both of the candidates didn’t die on the stage, or at least pass out from breathing each others’ hot air.
Never fear! I have the perfect solution for fixing said debacle before we hit the second round. Replace the journalistic moderator with a high-power shrink. Done and done. Well, almost done. I think it would be wise to give the psychiatrist the ability to shock one or both of the candidates when necessary—just enough juice to shut them up. Not so much that they swallow their tongue or wet their pants or anything gruesome like that.
After this ingenious idea struck me yesterday, I couldn’t stop thinking about the juicy possibilities.
Candidate A: Do we want this maniac with his finger on the button?
Candidate B: What button? What are you even talking about?
Candidate A: [mockingly] Wh-wh-what button? Where am I? Who took my medication?
Moderator: Candidate A, I hear a lot of anger and bitterness in your words. When did this hatred for your mother begin?
Moderator: Hmmm. When you belittle others, how does that make you feel? Do you feel that you need to belittle others to justify your own self-worth?
Moderator: When you label your opponent a ‘clown’ are you expressing a deep-seated fear of politics becoming a circus? Or are you addressing your own Oedipal tendencies?
Moderator: I’ve brought these sanitized, foam, anger bats so we can do some anger therapy. Once I blow this whistle, we will continue the debate. Whenever you hear something that prompts you to roll your eyes or mumble under your breath, simply use this medicinal bat to whump your opponent instead. Remember, if you get out of control, I’ll be forced to use Ms. Shock Stick. [wields ten foot cattle prod]
It’s just too much fun to imagine these scenarios. I had a hard time falling asleep last night because of it. Next time the reality of our democracy has you down, just imagine yourself as the “shrink of the debates” and have fun with it.
But seriously, (not that seriously) there’s a reason why questions are more helpful than screaming. At the most basic level, questions imply an awareness of “other.” One can pontificate to an empty room. But a question requires a second person. A thoughtful question requires one to pay close attention to a second person. A non-rhetorical question indicates that you would like to hear from that other person.
These fundamental differences can be illustrated via social media through the two platforms of Facebook and Quora. As you are probably aware, Facebook is the leading platform for yelling at people (and then ignoring all the angry responses). You may not be familiar with Quora, a social media platform built entirely around asking questions. As you’ve likely guessed, I much prefer Quora over Facebook. The whole premise of Quora is to provide a place for anyone and everyone to ask questions. For the most part, the best questions rise to the top. Often the people providing possible answers to the questions are immensely qualified to do so. At the very least, Quora is much more likely to generate actual conversations.
All of this to leave you with my hopefully helpful tip of the week: To create a healthier society, healthier relationships, and a healthier you, make an effort everyday to ask one person a thoughtful question. I’ll start: “If you could ask one of the presidential candidates one question about something personal and meaningful to you, what would it be?”
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At the Desk This Week
This week, I’ve gone back and spent more time hanging out with each of my key doppelgängers in the “real-verse” where Season 3 of The Green Ones is based. I like the way each of those gangers is developing as their own character. With that new information in my head, I’m rewriting the first two episodes before jumping back into episode 3. I’m hoping this will be the last time I need to loop back to the beginning in an effort to get back up to speed with my former skill level (back before I shifted my focus away from full-time writing).
While the current climate in our society and world is still a distraction, and my kids are still doing half of their schooling from home, and blah, blah, blah… Overall, I’m falling in love again with these characters and with their worries. I’m escaping (at least part of the time) into their world and away from my own. As a result, the story is growing richer and fuller. My writing chops are returning, and that’s a positive thing.
Below, I’m including some bonus content on telekinetic skills within The Green Ones. This is the type of stuff I create in the background in order to stay consistent as I write. I’ll drop tidbits like this one each week for the next few weeks. I hope you like them. Let me know if there is anything in particular you want to know more about.
The Green Ones: Categorizing Telekinesis
[Click here to start at the beginning.]
Beginning Skills:
Unconscious and uncontrolled twining with siblings/relatives.
Uncontrolled microshifting that results in bursts of raw, unfocused TK energy. These outbursts can be deadly under tense situations.
Intermediate Skills:
Communication via twining w/siblings.
Focused bursts of TK energy. This ability can be directed as a weapon, but still lacks the stability to “grip” objects or people.
The frustration of other people via bursts of directed EM energy. The human mind is sensitive to EM disturbance, and can be frustrated or “fuzzied” with even a subtle pulse of EM energy as long as it is focused or directed well enough.
Hovering or basic flying skills. It is easier to manipulate yourself than others.
Advanced Skills:
Sharing of TK energy via twining w/siblings.
Advanced flying skills.
Barrier phasing and frequency matching. (Zorrah has the unique ability to extend her frequency far beyond normal along the EM spectrum).
Blocking an EM energy attack, or creating an EM shield.
Transmission of human emotion via EM energy (control the part of the brain effected and the mood.) Otherwise known as telepathic human manipulation (in contrast to telekinetic human manipulation).
Focused and disciplined bursts of TK energy able to grip and manipulate people and objects (telekinetic manipulation). This is a dangerous skill. If used improperly, it can result in disintegration. It is easier to manipulate people than inanimate objects due to susceptibility of the human mind to TK energy. When this skill is used on humans, it combines both the will of the individual deploying the ability as well as the mind of the individual being manipulated (their nervous system is hijacked) in order to strengthen the effect. When this ability is deployed on someone who also has TK abilities, the effect can be cancelled. But there remains the danger of vibrating out of sync, thus resulting in disintegration at a cellular level.
Disintegration as a weapon of mass destruction.
Master Skills: (these abilities are almost always limited to those with the lost gene/divine herb because they demand high levels of concentration and time to develop).
Controlling the senses of another via twining.
Macro shifting (between universes) via TK twining. Macro shifting results in the alpha-ganger (the one who initiates the twining process) being rendered unconscious and/or in a state of stasis if assisted by the appropriate medical equipment. *Macro shifting can be assisted if a powerful individual is in physical contact with both gangers involved in the twining process. The master can help guide the talented novice from both sides of the exchange in order to ensure their consciousnesses don’t get lost in the chasm between.
Sixth sense or psychic mapping, also known as “god’s eyes” or “matrix mapping” or “psychic flow”
Massive and diversified ability to manipulate inanimate objects.
Target and deploy disintegration as a precise weapon.
Grandmaster Skills: The supreme ability of the grand master is to be able to simulshift. Simulshifting occurs when an individual is able to maintain TK twining with multiple gangers simultaneously. This can also take the form of maintaining a conscious state within the Verses of alpha-ganger origin while TK twining with a ganger on one or more additional Verses.
TK Transducer: Certain individuals develop the ability to amass an inordinate amount of TK energy. As a result their skin “crawls” with luminescent EM energy ranging off the top of the wave spectrum. TK magnets can be highly dangerous when unstable or unfocused. It is uncertain what causes an individual to become a magnet, but it is believed to be a combination of genetics and traumatic experiences. When/if a TK magnet masters his or her abilities, that person has up to triple the potential output. But if used without the skills to control it, the TK energy will destroy its handler.
The curious case of Calli Bluehair: In the unique case of Calli, her TK Transducer ability eventually combines with her ability to barrow TK energy via her brother and results in further off the charts power. Centavo is the first to speculate that this power could be enough to reverse the Great Schism itself…or fracture the multiverse even further.
The “Six of Serpent 6”:
Yetic: Advanced in human telekinetic manipulation and flying. Cage fighting experience.
Neca: Advanced in barrier phasing, shielding, frequency matching and flying. Cage fighting experience.
Olin: Advanced in sixth sense and inanimate object manipulation. Capable of sharing TK energy with his sister. Also a flyer.
Zorrah: Advanced in breaching the broader EM spectrum. She can alter her own frequency.
Cera: Advanced in human sympathies and transmission of emotion via TK energy. (Telepathic manipulation)
Calli: Advanced in leadership and sibling twining. She’s a TK magnet or Transducer like Citlalli. Some of this ability is released/enhanced after her braid is regrown by Citlalli.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read these scenes of Boundaries, Season 2 of The Green Ones. I’ll be publishing FREE daily scenes from The Green Ones until…I die…or something terrible happens. Seriously, I’ve got over 100 scenes written so far, and I’ll be writing more until the story reaches its natural ending. You are totally welcome to read the entire story for FREE! If at any point you decide you would rather finish the story in ebook or print format, just click the buttons below and you can do that as well. If you enjoy reading the serial releases, BUT you would also like to support me as a writer (my kids need wine!) please subscribe to my premium content for bonus scenes, exclusives, and insider access to my process. And of course, I’d be grateful if you would share this post with any of your reader friends who you think would enjoy The Green Ones. Happy reading!