What life lesson did you learn too late?
It is okay to be me. That simple! I pretended, censored, and changed myself for others. All of which made me someone I did not like. All for other people’s approval and “love”.
So it is okay to be me especially if I am alone.
Has your idea of what makes a good friend changed as you’ve gotten older?
So this is what I was going to post:
Time has made me a cynic. There are no friends. I am useful to someone so they stay close. But that changes and they leave.
But:
I am a very hard person to get to know. Even harder to get close to. It is not friendship that has changed but me! I am not the type that has friends – simple!
What is one thing you can’t live without?
Oh wow!!! I would like to say something deep – like love or faith – but being pragmatic I need to say my Book of Common Prayer – the Heritage Edition with the King James Version of the Bible
I have earlier editions – 1549 and 1559 – but the 1662 is my choice at the moment. I use it (as is) in my oratory using the 1922 Lectionary. Yes, there are problems with it but it works for me.
How do you define success in life?
There is an essential distinction between define and describe. And I would not define success (because it looks different for you than me) but I know it when I see it.
And it is not the big things. Sometimes it is getting out of bed or finishing the day without completely giving up. Sometimes it is eating when you do not feel like it. Or maybe getting dressed.
So success is for you to define! And it might not be the big things that everyone sees but the little victories done in private.
What’s a completely useless fact you love sharing?
The word “fact” in English comes from the Latin factum – “to do”. It is always, by definition, something in the past. It is an event that has taken place. It does not predict the future, nor is it universal. Lots of people mistake fact and truth.
That is the fact I live to share!
Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs. The film is truly as horrify as the book. When Hannibal escapes – oh my!!!! I like Harris’ books, especially the Hannibal Lecter ones. I guess there is a sense that the whole thing has entered popular culture.
The one thing that is a little annoying is that the films blend parts of the books. But all very scary!!!
Since it is anywhere, I would go the moon. Not much to see or do but the trip would be exciting. Also I might find the “desert” for which I have been looking.
Anyway …
You’ve owned your fear and all your self-loathing
You’ve owned the voices inside of your head
You’ve owned the shame and reproach of your failure
It’s time to own your belovedness
You’ve owned your past and how it’s defined you
You’ve owned everything everybody else says
It’s time to hear what your Father has spoken
It’s time to own your belovedness
He says, “You’re mine, I smiled when I made you
I find you beautiful in every way
My love for you is fierce and unending
I’ll come to find you, whatever it takes
My beloved”
You’ve owned the mess you see in the mirror
You’ve owned the lies that you’re just not enough
You’ve been so blinded by all you’re comparing
It’s time to own your belovedness
He says, “You’re mine, I smiled when I made you
I find you beautiful in every way
My love for you is fierce and unending
I’ll come to find you, whatever it takes
My beloved”
You are completely loved and fully known
Beloved, believe He died to make your heart His home
And He says, “You’re mine, I smiled when I made you
I find you beautiful in every way
My love for you is fierce and unending
I’ll come to find you, whatever it takes”
He says, “You’re mine, I smiled when I made you
I find you beautiful in every way
My love for you is fierce and unending
I’ll come to find you, whatever it takes
My beloved”
It’s time to own your belovedness
What are your thoughts about cryptocurrency?
I have a weird relationship with money. So I am stuck with the basics.
I have nothing to say, no thoughts at all, about cryptocurrency. It is not a part of my life or my worldview. What I have read it sounds interesting. TV shows seem interested in it. The news mention it. But, again, I have no personal view.
It does show the non-existence of money – an abstraction that rules. But that is for another day!
If you had to sum up your life philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?
I assume this is not a categorical discussion of academic philosophy but rather a personal worldview!?
As an aside, I tend towards nihilism. I have an internal monologues on the distinction between nihilism and absurdism. Also the connection between asceticism and nihilism. So there is an “academic philosophical school” I connect with but I do not follow any one system of thought completely and exclusively. In fact, I am “anti-system”.
So I am breaking the rules (prompt) and giving two:
First,
Jesus only
Two,
Freedom is the will to be responsible for ourselves.
