A handful of questions to stimulate synapses stuck in auto-pilot / cruise control.
“Live each day like it’s the last day of your life” … isn’t that one of those motivational poster messages? Like with a photo of a bungee jumper or kitten attacking a pit bull? Or is it, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”? I think the first one is more motivational. The second one lacks a sense of urgency. It’s more like a reprieve.
1. Are you in a rut? If so, why? Do you like it there? If you’re not in a rut, how do you avoid it?
2. Are you a social animal or an introvert? Which would you like to be?
3. Do you disdain people who are eccentric and demonstrative or do you secretly envy them?
4. Did you grow up or did you just get older?
5. What’s your favorite TV commercial of all time?
6. What do you do (if anything) that hurts your conscience?
7. When was the last time (if ever) that you experienced the joy of wild abandon?
Shawn Sullivan said:
FIRST! That being said:
1. I’m not in a rut, but i am well structured. I enjoy my day to day life and stability is very appreciated.
2. I am a social animal that likes to pick his spots. I can work with anyone professionally (that’s my job), but when I get home, I tend to be quiet. It takes a bit to draw me out in new social situations.
3. Eccentricity for the sake of it annoys me. If you’re trying to be different, you’re not.
4. I mostly got older, but I have matured in some essential ways.
5. My all-time favorites are the “This is Sportscenter” commercials…all of them.
6. My conscience is strong. I usually ‘fess up.
7. Can’t even remember. I do know it was before I became a father. Probably a Halloween Party in Milwaukee in 2001. That was a good time.
October 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm #
Cheryl Mathis said:
1. I like my rut. It’s comfy and cozy, and I have pretty pictures on the walls and a silky soft blanket to cuddle in. I’m branching out into new areas right now, but I don’t think of it as breaking out of a rut. I think of it as expanding my comfort zone. It’s pure semantics, but it makes me feel better.
2. Ha. This one is easy. I’m an introvert. Lately, I’ve been forcing myself into public situations (see question 1), but I’m still mostly in my head. I like to think I’m friendly enough, and I genuinely like people, so that keeps me from being a total hermit and wallflower. Of course Dino introducing me to everyone and their friends helps too.
3. It depends on the motivation. If they are just being quirky and odd, that can be interesting. If I get the sense that they are just doing it for the attention, it’s a turnoff. In general, I tend to drift away from people who can’t behave in public, though.
4. I sometimes feel like I’m still a kid, but only in regards to feeling humbled by people with more experience. Maturity is hard to define. I own my house, I have two kids, I vote in every election, I don’t drink or do drugs, but I still giggle and skip.
7. Is it wrong that I think I feel this at least once a week? There’s something special about living in the moment with your kids. We have regular laughter parties at the dinner table, where we all start chuckling, and it escalates to rolling-on-the-floor-can’t-breathe kind of laughter, and not really because something was really funny, just because we were inexplicably happy. I love dancing in the kitchen like a fool until I’m breathless. I like kissing my husband because I’m just overwhelmed with love all of a sudden. Part of living in the moment is leaving yourself available for wild abandon at all times because life has some very great highs every day.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:10 am #
Boogenstein said:
1. No
2. First one and happy with it.
3. Where I come from it is perfectly normal. The freaks that change their sock colour after labor day worry me much more.
4. Got older.
5. This British ad for John West Salmon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpKFPEah3E
6. Nothing, but perhaps I have no conscience?
7. Drinking 100 proof Captain Morgan at the Fillmor!
October 12th, 2008 at 11:37 am #
Boogenstein said:
re 5. These are funny too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BBzpLEjAr8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWftRYFKiNw
October 12th, 2008 at 11:42 am #
Dino Corvino said:
1. I am not in a rut. I am in a funk. I am going to start taking my lexapro again.
2. No idea. I havea brutally hard time in public, but my friend Eric tells me people like to hang out with me. I do not get that impression at all. So to avoid rejection, I probably stay home.
3. I have no idea. I think eccentricity without substance is just lame. If a person has a reason, then I dig it.
4. I am getting closer to dead each day.
5. No idea.
6. Let my mom buy dog food at Wal Mart.
7. Friday. Watch Scott Holt play guitar, watch me enjoy watching Scott Holt play guitar.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:00 pm #
Jane Neal said:
1. I am not in a rut. I avoid ruts by always keeping my eyes on the road.
2. Once people get to know me and when I am in the company of those I am comfortable with, I am a social animal. In new situations, with strangers, I am more of an introvert. I think I’d like to be a social introvert.
3. I don’t think much of people who are eccentric in order to call attention to themselves, but I admire independent thinkers.
4. I think I was always an old soul.
5. I don’t think I have one, but I liked the Emerald Nuts commercial with Robert Goulet.
6. My conscience is pain-free.
7. The joy of wild abandon?
October 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm #