Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The Contest

I love my children. They are like small versions of me. Usually this creates tension and conflict. Like two positively charged particles repelling each other. And normally when I ask them to do something unusual it is met with consternation and dissension.

But occasionally not.

Last evening no one could think of anything fun to do so I suggested that we have a contest to see who could write the best 300 word essay in twenty minutes or less. You would think that this would have gone over like a lead balloon.

Davis chose the topic: Fun (wink). That is Davis saying the word fun and then winking like Barney on How I Met Your Mother, Season Two, Episode 19, Bachelor Party.

These are the entries. It's fun(ny) because there was a clear winner.



Fun (wink), by John Andrew Davis Hitch

Fun. What is fun. Its the thing you do to pass time. The types of fun vary from adventure to relaxation. You can have fun doing anything, basically. Adventure gives you the rush and excitement that people go mad for.

Fun is love and hate. Fun is an argument or a debate. Fun can be happy or sad. Fun can be writing a paper for your dad. These last few lines have been fun. I’ve been using a poetic diction and been having fun with it.

Anything you set your mind to can be fun. Fun to me is playing a kindhearted game of bang! Striving to beat and kill my family...now that’s fun.

Lucas for instance loves to discuss Lost.

I love to write and make up stories.

My dad thinks having fun is having a writing contest within your house, hence this
paper.

My mom thinks going to the beach and swimming is fun.

Doing what you love is fun. And loving what you do is fun. People have different views of fun. It varies from who you are and where you come from. Any one can have fun. Fun can be anything you set your mind to. I could have chosen to write about a story I heard or a rumor. But the fact that I chose to write about such a variable topic proves that this is fun.

Fun is life. Fun is love. Fun is happiness. Fun is friends. Fun is what I do and don’t do. Fun is what I choose to do. Fun is nothing and everything. But most of all fun is FUN.



Fun (wink), by Dr. Neal V. Hitch


What's fun. What's up. Washcloth.

This last couple of weeks my brother's son has been visiting us. As we sit in the living room listening to jazz fusion I am reminded of when I moved into the apartment with my brother when I was 13. This memory, as we sit eating a light appetizer of cheese and olives, is pleasant. It has been a long time since jazz has held my subconscious. The movement of music through the room strikes me in a place that makes me want to write. To me, jazz has a way of creating creativity, while to others it is nothing but noise. But jazz is history and future at the same time. It is something and nothing.

I listened to a song today that my nephew wrote. I listened to it nine times. The guitar riff reminded me of another song. But I could not place it. I listened over and over again trying to recall a distant melody lodged somewhere in my memory. It was not recalled.

This exercise to me is fun. Not traditional fun like going to a theme park. Something different. A mind game. Stretching to make connections between points in your memory that only align when something triggers the synapses.

Jazz? Is jazz the trigger? I think that jazz is the trigger that reminds me of a day when I was 13. This is the same age as Davis, who is also sitting in this room listening to jazz. Maybe its more than a memory. It is a memory that I also see in the present. A moment when you see your past placed over top of someone else's present. This is the same feeling listening to Jared's song. My past placed over his present.

Is that fun for me? Yes, in fact it is. A pleasant moment now gone as we get ready to put on a video.

That's fun. That's up. Washcloth.



Fun:, by Neal Lucas Hitch

“F” is for friends who do stuff together: What's the point of having fun if you can't share your joy with anyone? So ever after it is, when two friends sit down and say those three magic words, “Hey remember when?” You would look crazy if you sat down with your friends while they were reminiscing and said to yourself hey I remember when we did that really fun thing the other day. Nobody cares! Its only fun when you share your fun.

“U” is for you and me: There is another way to have fun, but you share this fun with a different type of friend. A “girl/boy” friend. In this day and age romance is the new fun. Just with this friend your gonna have to find a little more to talk about. You can't just say, “Hey, remember when we made out in my truck for like an hour?” No, with this type of friend there is a new three magic words: “I love you.”

“N” is for anywhere at anytime at all: It doesn't matter if you are in math class or writing a three-hundred word essay if your friends are there. “Hey remember when we put that whoopee cushion under Miss Collin's seat in math?” As long as you've got your buddies or your babe you'll have a butt load of fun.



Do you know who won?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I would choose the essay Davis wrote as the winner, because of the second paragraph. I so enjoyed that paragraph that I was a bit disappointed when the poetic diction came to an abrupt end. It reminded me of "The Princess Bride".

In the movie "The Princess Bride" When first introduced, Andre the Giant's character rhymed all his phases, but not long after it started the rhyming ended. The rhyming was enjoyable enough that I have always wondered why the writers did not continue this. Of course, I can not ask the writers "why?" and a Google search turned up very little, but I can ask Davis.

Davis - why did you stop the poetic diction? That paragraph made your essay fun (wink) to read. It grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading. Unfortunately, as I completed your essay and moved on to your dad's the fun never came back (I think I dozed off twice while reading his essay).

Sorry Lucas!! By the time I got to your's the fun (wink) had been completely drained from my being and I had very little left in me. Also, being the dad of a 13 year old girl, your idea of fun (wink) and the "I love you" mumbo jumbo made me uncomfortable ;-)

bryanhitch said...

Davis gets my vote. Your last word should have been tackcloth. Or tablecloth. Come on! I enjoyed that memory of listening to jazz. Still do it, now with my boys.

Jessica Allyn Brody said...

I vote Lucas. It was thoughtful and fun and true. And I loved the last line.

Davis always rhymes. It's good practice and clever, but I'm waiting for the next great thing - surprise us!

Sorry Neal. Bryan is right - need to revise that ending :)