Ten Questions (or, this is what you get when I can't formulate real thoughts)

1. Are people essentially good or essentially bad?


Let's start with the easy one, right? Why not?

I think people are essentially good. However, I think that sometimes, that good becomes directed or focused in ways that aren't always healthy or beneficial, and so they can do bad things from a place of pure intention. Which is why people are FRUSTRATING.
2. When lots of things go wrong at once, how do you react? What goes on in your mind?

I would like to say that I go to a place of zen, where it seems that time slows down and I can take care of things one at a time, appropriately, secure in the knowledge that everything passes.

Sometimes, that is exactly what happens.

 Other times I go into drama queen freak out mode, which is not always productive but is generally cathartic. I would prefer to be more zen and less chaos, but as a friend of mine recently pointed out, "sometimes you just have to have a hissy fit."
3. What are some of the most important lessons you've learned about pain in your life?

That it is necessary. That it is a sign that you've lived courageously. That it passes.

4. If you could sum up your philosophy of life in a few sentences, what would it be?

It's not about how you get knocked down. It's about how you get back up.

5. If you had to explain why the world is the way it is to your children, what would you say?

(Gets box of crayons) "See these? Look at all of the colours. Some are ones you REALLY like. Some are ones you don't like. Some of them go really well together. Some of them don't. But they all come in the same box. You don't get to choose. You'll have to get the ones that you like and the ones that you don't and the ones that get lost and the ones who get broken, the ones you love and the ones you don't care for -- all of them. Because that's how it is. In the box of crayons and in the world."
6. Do you believe things always turn out for the best?

Is there a point to believing otherwise? How depressing would that be?

7. What are you the most proud of about yourself and your life?

I'm here. I'm happy. I take nothing for granted. I'm proud of those. Anything else would just be vanity, I think.
8. Do you procrastinate a lot of the time, much of the time, or not much at all?

I've never been a procrastinator, because I think that when you give yourself no time in which to do something, you don't allow yourself to do it really well. (I also like the fact that, if you get something done right away, it doesn't hang over you, ruining your fun.)
9. What risks have you taken in your life? Have you avoided any?

I think life is risky by nature. Love is a risk. Dreaming is a risk. Growing and changing involve risks. But if you don't take the chance on any of them, you stagnate -- and what's the point of that? Why would you want to sit, a self satisfied, unchanging lump on a very dull log when you could be singing and dancing in the wind?

So yes, I've been known to take a risk. Or a hundred.
10. Are you usually on time or late for appointments?
 
I am chronically early.  I feel as though "on time" equals "late" ... I don't enjoy that in any way.