Character Meme

Swiped from oakmouse and haggispatrol. . .

List fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, comics) who've influenced you and will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

[I need to include a few ensembles and some gaming characters.]

1. Dorothy Gale, formerly of Kansas
2. The nuns from The Sound of Music
3. Princess Leia
4. Jehane bet Ishak, Ammar ibn Khairan, Rodrigo Belmonte, The Lions of Al-Rassan
5. Guenevere, from Parke Godwin's Beloved Exile
6. Cordelia Naismith Vorkosign & Aral Vorkosigan, Shards of Honor
7. Elana, Enchantress from the Stars
8. Delenn, Babylon-5
9. Queen Christina of Sweden, as portrayed in The Abdication (stage version, not the movie)
10. Lady Jane, in the movie Lady Jane
11. Elphaba, Wicked, the musical
12. Adela Quested, from the movie version of A Passage to India
13. Sabrina Verrick, Moonstruck Madness
14. Mari the Magdalene, The Moon Under Her Feet
15. Red Ruarri the Mactire, Summer of the Red Wolf


"Influenced you" is what makes this meme a bit more challenging -- and intresting -- than most. It's one thing to make a list of "favorite" characters, and another thing entirely to list those who have actually changed you in some way. Each one of the characters on this list either shifted my consciousness or got so deeply under my skin that they have become part of me.

Time's Up

My grieving was long, and I don't begrudge that. uncrowned_king was worth every minute and every tear -- but I'm done now. He remains dear to me, part of my heart and soul, but I am no longer in constant pain because of his passing.

I know I've written that before, but this process has been a three-steps-forward-one-or-two-steps-back journey. And I hadn't realized that even after I'd reached the "Acceptance" phase there would still be convalescing to do.

But the last two weeks have blessed me with a series of encounters and stimulus which have fast-forwarded my healing and brought me fully back to life again. I've been feeling eager, energetic, optimistic, even joyous -- all emotions that I'd often thought would be beyond me for the rest of my life. After months of aching because I was unable to feel desire or creativity or longing or interest in anything, I have ideas, plans, and plots bubbling up inside me.

My life has become very boring over the past few years. I'm grateful to those of you who still bother to read this journal.

I'm tired of being boring.
I'm tired of the emptiness.
I'm tired of "numb" being the best I can hope for from day to day.

And now, finally, I have the energy and inspiration to do something about it.
I don't want to write about it quite yet. I've learned to value silence a bit more than I used to -- but hopefully there will be new posts soon with new energy.