So over on Jen Gagne’s Live Journal Page, she’s spreading an interesting meme:
Ask me any three questions. Any at all, as probing as you like, and I’ll answer them as honestly as I can. If the answers are too personal, I’ll make the thread Barnsonians-only.
What three questions would you ask of me? Or of one another?
I challenge you to do this wherever you have your space on the Internet. The questions — and your answers — may surprise you. Or bore you. Or both.
three
Here’s three seemingly unrelated questions:
1. What is your greatest regret in life?
2. What is your greatest joy in life?
3. How would you like to be remembered?
— Ben
Answers…
1. That I didn’t take a logic course in junior high or high school. It took until I was in college to develop any critical thinking skills, and I wasted years more in fruitless effort attempting to conform to a religion that didn’t conform to me. Now I feel as if religion is like underwear: if it’s uncomfortable or doesn’t fit right, choose another pair!
2. The greatest joy in my life is my wife. Which is kind of funny, because she’s often a source of my greatest frustration, too! Had I had that logic class in high school, I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have been where I met her, and we wouldn’t have had so much in common. Yet she’s stuck with me through thick and thin, and I’ve found that despite our differences we remain immensely compatible. Plus, she’s cute. I like her.
Second-place is flying model aircraft 🙂 And my second greatest regret is that I didn’t start flying earlier!
3. I’d like to be remembered fondly. In the middle of the night a few weeks ago, I posted a phrase to a forum which I looked back at later and thought was, weirdly, kind of profound. “You’re the hero of your own life story, whether the world remembers you for good, ill, or not at all.”
I’m OK not being remembered at all. I mean, it would be cool to have some memento like Ozymandias’ earth-straddling statue, but otherwise, whatever 🙂 It doesn’t bug me, I’m worm food, and there are billions (soon tens of billions) who are more interested in staking a place in history.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Obligatory Monty Python Reference…
Obligatory Monty Python reference follows:
1. What is your name? 2. What is your quest? 3. Choose one: — What is your favorite color? — What is the capital of Assyria? — What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
—
Matthew P. Barnson
My answers
(In keeping with the tone of this particular line of questioning)
1) His Rhymeness Lord Weed 2) To spread the Dirty Show Funk to all ends of the Universe, with my partner in Funk MC Hebrew Grand National. 3) African or European?
My $.02 Weed
Addendum To Answer #2
In a big-axx sailboat. Someday…
To Folow-Up Ben’s Questions
1) What’s your favorite thing about your wife
2) What frustrates you the most about your wife
3) Is there anything you’ve never told your wife you wish you had?
My $.02 Weed
Answers…
1. Favorite thing: Her outgoing personality. It’s what attracted me in the first place, and a big part of what keeps me interested in her. She loves people, and she loves being around people. It shows.
2. Frustrates me most about her? Her stubbornness and anger when she doesn’t get her way. We’ve both gotten better at compromise over the years, though, so she’s improving!
3. Anything I’ve never told my wife that I wish I had? Not any big secrets in my past or anything… I’m a pretty open book, and we’ve been together a pretty long time 🙂 But I wish I could talk to her openly about the truth behind the founding claims of my former religion. That’s something I refuse to push on her, though, and she’s made it plain she’s not interested in whether it’s factually true or not. She’s more interested in her relationship with God. That’s cool, but occasionally it frustrates me (see #2) 🙂
—
Matthew P. Barnson