Lorene M., of Writing about…Writing nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Thank you for the nomination! I think this is my fourth go-round with Sunshine. All the other nominations were from anime bloggers but Lorene’s blog is about writing in general, so I’ll give this a shot.
Of course there are rules. There are always rules. I should have them memorized by now.
- Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
- Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
- Nominate up to 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
- List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
****************************
1. Which is the best thing that happened to you in 2020?
My daughter got married to her boyfriend of 5 years… that was the best thing to “happen.” And Trump lost the election. A few other sort-of-good little things happened but I cannot think of anything else that really stands out. It has been a really bland year for me hiding out at home and only going out for solo recreation now and then.
2. Which is the emotion you predominantly feel and why?
Most of the time I’m not really feeling any emotions at all. I live in my head a lot. That’s just how I am built. Maybe love and affection for my pets and family when I look up from my writing. A sense of wonder when I’m in nature or engrossed in science.
3. Have did blogging taught you until now?
That’s gotta be a typo. I suppose blogging has taught me to be a better writer. I’ve learned that I can bare my soul – and everything else – online and still feel safe. Writing is a mechanism for organizing my thoughts better than just straight thinking. It clarifies how I feel and in clarifying that, it allows me to make useful changes in my thinking. I am am more free to be myself than I can be with strangers IRL.
4. If you knew for sure you will succeed with something, what would you start and why?
Where to begin??? Travel the world? Hike the triple crown of hiking trails? (AT, CDT, PCT) Run for President? Write the definitive Great American Novel? Legalize nudity everywhere? 🙂
5. What is your biggest regret and what have you learned from it?
I have so many regrets I don’t know where to start. Relationships I bolixed up, failing miserably in school, not working harder at my brief career in aerospace, child-rearing failures, not doing daring things or having great adventures while I still had the physical and mental capacity. And those are just the regrets I might have had some small control over. If I have learned anything it is to try to keep the past in the past and not allow it to contaminate the present.
Nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
– Omar Khayyam
There is nothing I can do about my school or career now. There is nothing I can do about the inevitable decline in physical and mental capacity that comes with age. Nothing to be done for the friends and lovers that are gone. No point in remembering all the wrongs and slights of the past. Nothing to be done for the heartache and thousand natural shocks flesh is heir to.
If there is nothing to be done for the past, then it doesn’t matter anymore and should no longer be a source of pain nor a place a healthy human being should live in. Accept it, own it, be at peace and move on.
6. If you had unlimited powers and resources for one day, what would you do with them?
Put an end to all the hate and polarization in the world.
7. If you had to describe yourself in a short sentence, what would that sentence be?
I am many things but no one thing or combination of things defines me.
8. What is your favorite quote?
9. If you could be someone else, who would you choose to be and why?
I’d be Kino, from Kino’s Journey. She’s completely at peace with who she is. She has a companion and they are both comfortable with each other. She has the most incredible adventures. I am a born traveler.
10. What is the stupidest most expensive thing you ever bought?
I’ve never spent a lot of money on a whim. I have always been parsimonious about such things. Once upon a time, I self-published a novel. It was an apocalyptic nuclear war with our brave protagonists struggling to survive against the odds. One of the things I paid for was a short video promoting the book. Outrageously expensive, completely useless, but it was fun.
11. If you could learn anything (something you don’t already know), what would you learn and why?
I would learn how to belong with ordinary people. Sometimes it gets lonely to be on the outside looking in, even in friendly environments. I suspect I’m just not wired for it.
***************************
This is like my 4th go-round for the Sunshine Blogger nomination, so I’ll skip the questions and nominations.
January 27, 2021 at 16:19
Congratulations
January 26, 2021 at 16:40
I could like this a hundred times over.
What am I? There are all these labels to apply. I’m a cis-het male but that doesn’t really describe my sexuality. I’m on the functional side of the autism spectrum (Asperger’s) but if you’ve met one aspie, you’ve met one aspie. We’re all different. I’m a nudist – or maybe a naturist – but my gosh there are plenty of people out there who will give you lists of rules for what that means and I violate most of them. (I must be something else, far more subversive.) I’m a “senior citizen” but I can turn into a nervous 13-year-old at the drop of a hat.
I could go on down the list of all the things I am but don’t comply with the stereotype or rules. I am NOT interested in a big group identity thing, I just want to be me. And preferably stay out of jail while I’m at it.
January 26, 2021 at 10:30
I really love that line about not being able to define yourself as a thing or combination of things.
Sometimes I wonder, do we even meet people, truely or do we meet what they want us to meet! Do words matter, I can describe you, but will it ever encapsulate you truely.
Are bonds real, do people really connect or do we fake it, make someone seem like us so we aren’t as alone.
On the other hand I am glad no words will ever tell us who you are, we have to interact to experience another
January 26, 2021 at 14:12
I know it isn’t accepted in all circles to say this but it it the labels we put on ourselves and on other people that keeps us apart. A labels is just a shorthand for a stereotype.
January 26, 2021 at 16:07
I sometimes feel that about all words. A “relationship” has to be a certain way because there is a standard definition, regardless if YOUR relationship follows those rules.
Friendship has defined rules, even before people factor in the people in that bond. We have boxed ourselves in with language and expectations and lately I have found myself smothered by that.
We standardise everything and I am trying to break that standard and it does make me happier.. but it also makes me feel more alien. I know I am making the right choices for me .. to be me.. you know , I know how to define me but when I say friend I do not mean it in the definition of the populous but in mine. Which may be equalliy valid and more applicable to me…but is not the consensus. So while I can describe myself with words.. to me.. to other they mean something else so describing me feels empty… like you said words will never be me. At times that upsets me because I feel a majority of the people doesn’t get that we are different and that is equally beautifyl as similarities. We are actually special snow flakes but so many try to be that standard drawing snowflake you spray on your window for christmas or something… and because they try so hard.. the words to describe me.. matter even less..as it’s in a language that people are not receptive to.
January 24, 2021 at 16:18
“I am many things but no one thing or combination of things defines me.”
I like that. Well said.
January 22, 2021 at 22:41
Congrats!