I was going to sit out on the deck.... in These titles mean nothing.

.... this afternoon in my artfully arranged chairs and write ten more things.

Then the afternoon got away from me and I thought I’d waited too long. But here I am. Turns out the day stayed warm enough for me to come out, barefoot even. The sun is low through the leafless tree. This the first day back on standard time so if the clock says 3:30 it would have been 4:30 yesterday. I spend the first week of standard time doing time translation like that. I stop when I can’t do it any longer.

Well ok.

1. This is the first two year election since 2004 that I haven’t been out this weekend drumming up votes for Democrats. I never knew how much good I was doing and it’s easy to decide I’m retired from active campaigning. I can let it happen without me. I’ve given some money to candidates that I support. But that’s it. I still hope that the ‘right’ candidates win on Tuesday. I hope the election goes smoothly. I hope everyone has a chance to vote and I hope all the votes are counted. I hope the winners and losers are both gracious and wise enough to do good jobs for us all.

2. There is a breeze from the south and the oaks that still hold their leaves are sending out rustles. There is a sound of distant engines, maybe dryer fans too. Otherwise and maybe in addition, it is peaceful. Sun casts long shadows on the green closely clipped pasture. Airplane flies over. Sky is pale shades of blue. The black cat comes to visit.

3. Wow those first two bullets are exciting. There’s going to be seven more of them? Oh my I somehow doubt it. This entry might join the unpublished ones in Drafts. Someone I read here posted a list of rather serious questions and their answers. Maybe I’ll go see if I can find them. I’m not into nothing today and I’m not in self revelation either.

Ok after hours and detours here are the questions:

1) Do you think kids or their parents are responsible for their beliefs?

I’m not sure anyone is responsible for their own beliefs and I’m even more sure that no one is responsible for the beliefs of others. I suppose this question is aimed at religion - at whether it is good or bad to try to foster your beliefs in your children. I have no strong feelings. I was raised in a religion that I rejected. I raised my kids with no religion. My kid who has kids is raising his in his wife’s religion. None of us are fanatics. It will all turn out ok. I hope.

2) What are your current plans for the future? Will you be upset if they don’t work out?

Hard one. My job is ending soon. I really don’t know if I will try to get another one. I do not look forward to not working. To be way too honest, I’m having a hard time looking forward to anything. I don’t feel that I can really plan for the future. I feel really at sea. I feel that each day leads to another until it doesn’t. I’m beginning to regret not having made plans. Or am I?

3) How do you react to absurd situations?

I tend to giggle. Then I try to get out of the situation. And move on with my so-called life.

4) Do you think murderers deserve to die?

We all deserve to die. It’s part of the contract. We live and then we die. I do not believe in capital punishment. I think it’s impossible for the decision to be made that someone is so evil or even so dangerous that they should be killed. One of the reasons I’m grateful I live in Iowa is that we do not have the death penalty. It was outlawed in the early 1960s. I can remember when the last man was executed and I remember the mixed feeling that caused.

5) How much do you depend on technology?

I spend way too much in front of my computer. I do not have a cell phone. My car is pretty basic. I am grateful for having a dependable auxiliary brain that knows an infinite amount of information that I can generally find when I need it. I could on the net for friendship too. Semi-sorry to say.

6) Is it always worthwhile to hear both sides of an argument?

I wish it were easier to hear both sides of a situation. We tend to hear more and more on the side we favor and less and less on the side we are against. There seems to be a whole world out there whose whole goal is to make things so complicated and to throw so much dirt that it’s very hard to get to the basic facts.

7) If someone is hypocritical, do you point it out?

I pretty much never tell anyone anything negative about themselves. I see it as cruel and non-productive and besides I’m a coward. The doing one thing and saying another can sometimes be hinted at without causing a fist fight. Or eternal enmity.

8) Do you think it’s better to believe a lie than to live with an unpleasant truth?

I used to have a theory about the least damaging truth. It’s the truth that only hurts a little. If a person can truly live in ignorance of something that would make them unhappy, I think we should keep our mouths shut. But after the person does find out something bad and then realized that others knew all along and didn’t tell them. that’s not a pretty situation either. So I guess I men and haw on this one.

9) What’s your favorite art form?

I like all kinds including or maybe most of all nature’s infinite beauty. I am a visual person so I like pictures and words. I like it when someone puts together words in such a way that they have beauty and meaning. I like all pictures, photos, paintings, drawings, old ones, new ones. I think we like what we like because of taste. And how our tastes are determined is a mystery.

10) If you could change your family, what would you change?

I don’t have a lot of family and most of it is quite satisfactory. I suppose the things I would change are things about myself and how I relate to them. I would be closer to my brother and his family and to my sisterinlaw.

11) How heavily do you depend on others when forming opinions?

I listen to my son. Sometimes if he disagrees with me I will try to figure out why and see if I might have been wrong in the first place. I listen to the BBC, I read various places on the net, I used to be more dependent on newspapers and magazines. I would like to be more informed about world affairs but I guess I’d like to have it happen magically - I don’t seem to want to work on it.

12) If you could have one conversation before you died, who would you talk to and what would you say?

I had authors I wanted to write to but I never did and now they are dead. In my personal life, I don’t know who I’d talk to = my sons I suppose - and I don’t know what I’d say - that they were good kids and that I am proud of them. I guess that’s probably it in a nutshell.

13) How much potential do you think you have?

I have no potential what so ever. Whatever I am right now is all I’ll ever be. In fact I feel like I’m losing ability as each year goes by. I think I could get myself going again and maybe stop the deterioration but I lack the ambition to do it. I’m sorry if that sounds depressing or depressed. Maybe it is.

14) Is it wise for humans to attempt to create life?

If we are talking babies here, then there’s never been a good time to have one, or two or a dozen. Yet here we all are. Someone had enough faith in the future to have us.
If we are talking Frankensteinish life creation I am against that. I love science but there are limits. I hope.

15) Talk about a favorite memory:

My parents when to Tony Link’s wedding dance. I had heard that sometimes people took their kids to dances and I wanted to go. My parents were not the type of people who took their kids to wedding dances so we had to stay with our grandparents. But the next day my mother took my brother and me fishing. My brother had developed an interest in fishing and had bought hooks and fishline and bobbers and sinkers at the hardware store. It was my first year in 4-H, I would have been 10, and we had made picnic cookers out of gallon tin cans that went over tuna cans filled with a coil of corrugated cardboard and then filled with melted paraffin. I could make one now if I wanted to. My mother did not drive, so she and my brother and I and a fairly new puppy we had all walked up the gravel road to a neighbor’s pasture that had a creek with a deep pool in it where someone thought there might be some fish. I must have taken a camera because there were pictures, including one of my mother in her red plaid flannel shirt walking on the gravel road. My brother caught a couple three to four inch large minnows and we roasted them on the 4-H cooker. No ate them of course, but we offered them to the dog. I don’t know if she ate them or not. We all came home. My dad had taken a nap that afternoon..... except my dad never took naps. He must have been doing something.

16) What would you sacrifice for money?

I find this an odd question. What would I give up to be rich? Nothing.

17) If you could bring someone back from the dead, would you? If so, who would it be?

I would not bring anyone back from the dead. I used to think my mother would have enjoyed her grandchildren and I suppose my husband would have enjoyed his too, but I think life is set up to be the way it is. We live. We die. That is it.

18) What do you think is the meaning of life?

I’m not sure it has meaning. There is a lot of joy in living. So is the purpose of life to have fun? I really don’t know.

19) Do you think the average person has the potential to be a hero?

I think circumstances make heroes. We do not know what we would do until we are in the situation. We sure would not all be heroes but who would and who would not is not known until it happens.

20) If someone poor stole from someone rich, who would you sympathize with?

Neither. Both. It depends.

21) How quickly do you form opinions about other people?

Sometimes I judge by appearances or the way a person talks. To really get to know someone is hard and I don’t often have the patience to do it.

22) Would you kill someone if they planned to kill you?

I try to avoid those situations. So far I’ve been lucky.

23) Are you flattered or annoyed by gentlemanly behavior?

Defining a gentleman as someone who is kind, that would never be offensive. We all should be kind. We all should do to others as we would want them to do to us. If you are talking male/female flirtation, well that’s generally fun too.

24) Do you think you belong in hell? Why or why not?

If hell is defined as eternal punishment I do not belong there. Hell, even if it isn’t - eternal or punishment - I don’t belong there. I truly believe life is over when we die. What we have here is all there is, and who knows? it’s probably what we deserve.

25) Is perfection a good goal?

No, no, no. Perfect is the enemy of good. Have I not told you that a million times? We want to be good. We do not want to be perfect. Perfect is just asking for trouble.

26) Describe your family?

I am mainly Irish and a little English. My husband was Norwegian and Irish and German. So my kids are.... a combination. We try to be careful people. We are generally liberal in that we are for the underdog. We try not to hurt others and we try to take care of the earth.

27) Do you think it’s wrong to use animals as attractions and accessories?

How we treat the other animals on earth is a very deep and painful subject. I am opposed to unnecessary cruelty. I think animals should be treated humanely. I think there should be enough of the earth left wild for animals to live as they should. I realize a lot of what I just said is impossible. I regret it.

28) Do you think people should revolt if the government is corrupt?

I think people should work toward developing a more fair government. If you are actually living in a dictatorship and have no ability to change things, then I don’t know what you should do. Try to escape? To the US?

29) If you were stranded, would you be able to take care of yourself?

I try to have the right clothes and the right shoes to walk if my car breaks down or gets stuck in the snow. I would not leave the car if it were dark or if I did not know where I was going. To be honest I don’t think of this a lot. Swiss Family Robinson or Tom Hanks in Cast Away are not big in my fantasy banks.

30) What would you be the god/goddess of?

Benevolence. And anti-motion sickness.

31) If you could start a new life in a new world, would you?

Maybe. Maybe not. Who does with me? Do I have to do all the work? Am I this old? I have questions before I embark on new world adventures.

32) What motivates you best?

Deadlines. I need to be told when and where and what, and then I do it.

33) Is it important to work for the greater good of the world?

Yes, but I don’t think many people are aware of it. We tend to think of ourselves first. In the best of all possible worlds, taking care of yourself would mean taking care of others too. Except we are prisoners of unintended consequences, too often.

34) Would you kill your closest friend to save them from a worse fate?

This question makes no sense. I would not kill anyone under any circumstances. I hope so anyway.

35) Does listening to other people’s problems help you or weigh you down?

Listening to other people’s problems often puts your own in perspective. We all go through life with a set of disadvantages and sometimes we think we are the only people that have problems and that’s not true. Sometimes we can give (or get) helpful advice from others. Problem sharing is usually a good thing.

36) How much do you judge others on physical appearance?

Quite a bit. But. People can be too = whatever? Too good looking, too well dressed, too well groomed too. I like a nice middle of the road approach to appearance. Not that individualism isn’t good. most of the time anyway.

37) Are you romantic?

I could be. It’s really really hard to find the right person.

38) What’s your best physical feature?

I’m not sure I have one. (and then she lists a bunch) My hair can be good. I have a nice smile. Guess I’ll stop while I’m ahead.

39) What is your most important possession?

My stupid books. And my stupid computer.

40) Have you ever done anything ridiculous for love? What?

I’ve given up sleep for love. That might be all.

41) Do you value uniqueness?

Yes. We are like snowflakes. Snowflakes are like snowflakes. We are all unique. Life is full of surprises. For all those things, we should be grateful.

42) Would you be willing to be in a relationship with someone who is very dominant?

I believe in taking turns. Not dominant all the time, just sometimes.

43) Is there anything you feel guilty about right now? What?

I wish I were more in control of my life. I wish I could do the right things. Not sure if that relates to guilt or not. But it might be what I have instead of guilt.

44) Do you believe something has value simply because it’s beautiful?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So we value what we consider to be beautiful. And that’s the way it should be. We need to look beyond beauty though. Objects/people/ideas have value independent of beauty.

45) How consistent are your feelings about people close to you?

Pretty consistent. I try to behave in a consistent manner. I suppose I try to feel that way too.

46) If you died now, what would you want to happen to your possessions?

They would go to my sons who I believe would be able to decide what to do with them. I have thought of having a will but I don’t know if I would want to restrict them. I also think circumstances change over time and unless you keep a will ‘up to date’ it becomes ‘out of date.’

Oh my that’s the end. I don’t assume any of you will read this unless you decide to copy it and answer the questions yourself. I know I found out more about the previous person by reading their answers before I wrote mine over them.