Mixed Meme

[qos]

Via _storyteller_. . . mostly because I'm very interested in the recommendations this group will throw at me.

A) First, recommend to me:
1. A movie:
2. A book:
3. A musical artist, song, or album:

B) Next, Everyone who reads this ask me three questions, no more, no less. Ask me anything you want.
1.
2.
3.

C) Then, go to your journal and copy and paste this, allowing your friends to ask you anything.

Comments

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

A1) Limbo, written and directed by John Sayles
A2) Blessed are the Cheesemakers by Sara-Kate Lynch
A3) Album: Little Love Affairs by Nanci Griffith

B1) What were you like as a kid?
B2) What's your most prized possession?
B3) If you had one story to tell to describe who you are, what would it be?

Ooo, this is fun!

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendations! I've heard of John Sayles and Nanci Griffith (of course!) but I'm not familiar with the works you cite.

What was I like as a kid?
Well, if you know the song "Belle" from the beginning of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, that was me: always reading, never part of any crowd, and other people thought I was a bit strange -- but nice. (I wasn't a "beauty," however.) And I was always dreaming of far away adventure.

I was a Good Christian Girl (tm), and the non-denominational church my family attended was my second home. I was in choir, played handbells, was active in the youth group.

I almost always followed the rules, and when I did break them I made sure I did so very quietly and discreetly.

I was aware of myself as a Good Girl, and most of me wanted to be a Good Girl -- but there was always a secret part of myself that knew the wilder, unruly, secret parts of myself that I never dared to even own, much less express. That had to come much later.

My most prized possession?
Probably this painting, which is a "soul portrait" of myself, with my daughter.

There's a long story behind it, having to do with my difficulties adjusting to becoming a mother. It started out as a desire for a painting of myself as a young Native American woman with a papoose on my back running in the forest with wolves, and it was to be called "Mommies Who Run with the Wolves." But after Guleanne (the artist) and I worked together for more than a year, this is what came out. Virtually every detail of the image has symbolic meaning, either derived directly from our conversations and the charged items that I shared with her, her own psychic impressions, and her conscious decisions (like the rocks that make up the edge of the portal behind me).
The painting is called "Sacred Journey" and it really captures the essence of the woman I'm becoming -- eight years after it was painted.

One story to describe myself. . .
That's hard because I've gone through so many changes in the last few months I don't really have a good story to describe me now. I guess the cloest I could come is to tell the story of those past few months: of the upheaval as all the archetypes and "greater story" references I used to define myself died, a period of intense pain and confusion. . . and what is coming into being is still not fully mature. I'm in an emerging-from-the-chrysalis time, and my wings are still too crumpled and damp yet to describe fully.

Sorry I can't do better than that at the moment! Usually I am a storyteller, but this topic is more than I can do justice to at the moment.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_storyteller_/]

Movie: American Pop
Book: The prince of nothing
Music: The Horizon Has Been Defeated - Jack Johnson

Tell me about an ephiphany you have had in life?
If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?
What is your favorite food?

[qos.livejournal.com]

One of the most important epiphanies I ever had occurred during my freshman year of college. Although I had known since kindergarten that I would go to college, and had been told for years that "when you get to college, you'll come into your own," freshman year was very hard for me emotionally. I made some good friends, I was active in the Christian fellowship, and I got good grades, but I never made the adjustment emotionally to being there. I was there because it was expected of me, not because I had chosen it, and I was miserable.

At some point during my agonized musings on What Am I Going To Do? I remembered the book Illusions, by Richard Bach (which I have to imagine you've read -- and if you haven't, you should). At one key point, Don tells Richard: Listen! It's important: We are all. Free. To do. Whatever. We want. To do.

For a Good Girl like myself, who had always followed the rules and made sure to meet other peoples' expectations, finally really believing this was a massive paradigm shift. Of course any choice has consequences. Being free to do whatever we want to do doesn't mean that we can do so without fear of sanction or hurt or anger or disappointment -- or whatever -- from those around us, those who have authority, those who have needs and expectations.

But we are still free to choose. We can decide the consequences aren't worth the price. But we are free to choose. We each have far more options than most of us are ever willing to admit.

For me, at that time, being Free meant leaving school for a year, something which previously had been literally "unthinkable." I took my year, experimented with some options (all of them disappointing), and eventually chose to go back to Pomona for my own reasons.

Since then, I have never been able to say "I have no choice." Well, only once, in retrospect, but that was looking back at an emotionally abusive relationship, at the end of which I was pretty much suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. When I say that I "couldn't" leave that man, it was a literal truth. I did not have the power to choose to leave him, even though I desperately wanted to. (Add a few more details and you have the story of the lowest point of my life.) But such circumstances are the exception, not the rule.

If I could live anywhere. . . For me it's never been as much about the external setting as the internal one. I want a big house, one with some grandeur to it (and a staff to help me take care of it!). I want a bedroom with a fireplace. I want a big, big library with another fireplace and window seats and big comfy chairs. I want a screening room with comfy seats. A big room for dancing or rituals. Smaller rooms for conversation, games, perhaps meetings with clients when I become a spiritual companion/director. A light, airy room with exercise equipment.

I want it to be set back behind some trees, preferably with a nice wall and fence (think 9 of Pentacles from the Robin Wood deck!) -- but close enough to amenities and friends for convenience.

My favorite food? Probably prime rib. But I also love pepperoni pizza, and chewy brownies. I love seafood, especially crab. Fresh bread. Roasted dark meat chicken. . . .

[http://users.livejournal.com/_storyteller_/]

My mother had been a social science major in college before she dropped out. She had all sorts of books from college and assorted places that we kept in the garage of the house. One of the things she would do is go out to the college and take all the books that they didn't want to keep anymore. Growing up, I would rummage through these piles and boxes of books and find and dig out the ones that looked interesting and put them in my personal book collection in my room.

One of the ones I found was Illusions. I still have it with me and read it regularly. I found it at a time when I was first comming into my own as a seeker, and I was playing in my mind about the questions of choice and free will about freedom and privacy. These thoughts would become the most important thoughts in my life until I joined the military. I based my path around the concept of personal freedom. Then I joined the military and learned about service and social freedom.

The house you describe sounds wonderfull. My own dream home would need many of the same comforts. The best example for me of a dream home is the house that [Unknown site tag] jediyinyang lives in. It is a large house shaped like a pagoda. The main part of the house is actually on the third story. You walk through an herb garden and small personal orchard to get to the steps, the steps take you up to the entry alcove. The alcove opens up to a reception area. There is a large kitchen, a formal dining area, a living room, an office area, a master bedroom and a bathroom all on this floor, aranged in a hexagon shape around the center of the house (the entire house is a hexagon). The center area is a library, with stairs leading up to a loft that forms the top tier of the pagoda design. The entire design is very open air, most of the major interior walls are simply double sided bookshelves build into the frame of the house. From the main area there are stairs leading down. The second floor contains a second bathroom and three more rooms (bedrooms or whatever, one is currently where Ryan's father maintains his practice). The next set of small steps leads down into a 600 sq foot dojo and exercise room. With an adjoining garage/storage area. Both have external exits to the driveway. One of the things that I love about the house is there is simple no wasted space. The entire design is seemless . Oh and the house sits at the peak of the tallest hill in the area and overlooks the northernmost end of the San Fransisco bay.

[kateri-thinks.livejournal.com]

1. Angels in America
2. The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russel
3. The Prayer Cycle

1. When you were ten years old, what did you want to be "when you grew up"?
2. Share a story from your young childhood that tells a lot about you.
3. You have three months to go, to do, anywhere, anything you want - vacation, right? and money is not an issue. What do those three months look like?

[qos.livejournal.com]

I've got to get Angels on my Netflix list.
Love The Sparrow -- and Children of God -- which I presume you have also read? The one isn't complete without the other.

Just ordered "Prayer Cycle" from Amazon. It looks marvelous!

1. When I was ten years old I probably still wanted to be "a horse rancher." Although I might have graduated to doctor by then. But part of the story of my life is that the thing that I most wanted to be when I grew up was an intergalactic mediator -- and there was nothing on earth that aroused my excitement.

2. If 4th grade counts as young childhood, the story I told about being courtmartialed at Girl Scout camp hits some high points: http://www.livejournal.com/users/qos/169733.html

3. I take my daughter to Disneyland and do the Southern California attractions with her for about a week, then I take her home and do a solo road trip throughout the US. Laptop goes with me, and a pile of notebooks of various sizes, and I do a lot of writing. I visit friends I haven't seen in a long time, or meet LJ friends face to face. I tour sacred sites, historical sites, natural wonders, and weird places. I take pictures. If I have any time left over, I take a Caribbean cruise.

[kateri-thinks.livejournal.com]

OMGLMDFAO and spits diet coke across Artemis' keyboard!!!! (Court marshialed at Girl Scout Camp story! HAhahahahahahahahaha!!!)(Very David Sedaris!)