Sunday Stealing: The Double Stealing Meme

This week’s meme is a combination of two memes stolen from Pikohan, who responded to the initial series of five questions, and Stacie’s Madness. Stacie titled the 11 incomplete phrases the “Lovely Meme.”

The Double Stealing Meme

1. If you could turn back the hands of time to correct one wrongdoing, what event would you choose and why?

Wow, what a tough question, especially because it is vague and open to so many possibilities — a wrongdoing for which I was responsible or to which I was subjected? Or just a general world event?

I believe that our actions impact other people in myriad ways, many of which we never know about. I believe in karma, a universal balancer that takes care of matters I have had to let go of and move on from, even though I felt the situation was unfinished and I did not attain the much sought-after but often elusive feeling of closure.

So I guess if I could change one event, it would be something I did that had an unintended and unknown negative impact on someone else’s life.

2. Are you one for tradition? If so, what traditions do you strongly believe in? If not, what makes tradition hypocritical?

The older I get, the less interested I am in carrying on traditions just for the sake of the tradition itself. For instance, in recent years we have celebrated holidays and other occasions in new and different ways, moving past the traditional celebrations of the past. The key is whether or not the tradition has meaning for me at a particular point in my life. I have also found that it is sometimes good to break from tradition in order to move forward from a loss. For instance, when both of my parents were alive, we always spent Christmas Eve in their home (which is now my home). We continued that tradition on the first Christmas Eve after my father’s death, but then realized that it would probably be healthier to start a new tradition. That first Christmas Eve, his recliner sat in the corner of the family room and everyone walked around it; no one sat in it. We hadn’t realized until we viewed the video of the kids opening their presents a few months later. For the remaining years that my mother lived in this house and was able to celebrate with us, we went to my sister’s house on Christmas Eve. After my mother had to move out of this house, we changed it up again in the interest of abandoning old traditions that held lovely memories that were also laced with the pain of loss — of time, of people, of the way our family used to be.>

3. You were taking part in an event and you had to crossplay, who would you crossplay as and why?

Tony Soprano! He is the most fascinating character ever created for a television series, a classic everyman full of both contradictions and synchronicity.

4. If you only had one day left to live, how would you spend your last day? Would you be tempted to live fatally if you knew you were to die the next day, and if so, what extreme measures would you take?

I would hang out with my kids after making a lot of phone calls to friends for the purpose of telling them I love them and wish only the best for them.

5. What are your top five sinful materialistic items, ones you’d expect from others, including those closest to you? Why are each in the position they are in?

• My flute and other instruments. My flute was the most self-indulgent purchase I ever made, but I waited so many years to be a flutist and felt that I deserved it.
• My computers. We are all way too dependent upon these beasts.
• My home. Because it is the Hickok Homestead, it has great meaning in my life, although I am less attached to it as time goes on. I think that’s a function of getting older and being increasingly aware of my own mortality. It may be a home, but it is still just an item of property. My parents did not take it with them when they left this earth — and neither will I.
• My iPhone 3G. And I seriously want an iPhone 3GS. Another phone would suffice, but I love the iPhone. It is pure indulgence.

6. I am . . . on the cusp of a big adventure and huge changes in my life.

7. I feel . . . that the changes taking place in my life are long overdue, appropriate, and necessary to my well-being.

8. I see . . . that I turned a blind eye to reality for too long to my own detriment.

9. I need . . . to return to work tomorrow. Vacation is over. If I could afford to retire, I would.

10. I love . . . my job, so that means that I am not dreading it.

11. I wish . . . that things had turned out differently, but you cannot change other people. You can only change yourself and if the other person is not motivated to change, it is pointless to expend energy hoping that they will.

12. I think . . . about my children and their welfare first. Always.

13. I hear . . . Michael Jackson’s music on the television. Again. I appreciated his artistry, but enough already!

14. I crave . . . an iced white mocha, but I do not feel like leaving the house to purchase one.

15. I fear . . . that Buddy’s health is deteriorating. He is about 14 years old and having trouble walking. He can no longer make it up the two steps from the patio into the family room, so we have to carry him back into the house. He also doesn’t seem to hear noises around him. But then there are moments, as in when the refrigerator door opens or the mail arrives, about which he seems keenly aware.

16. I hope . . . to have a productive four days back in the office. It will only be four days, as opposed to five, because we will all be furloughed again. I also hope that this furlough nonsense ends soon because it is anathema to the efficient conduction of business.

Click here to see the list of other participants and links to their sites where you can read their responses.