Question Time

[gurdonark]

Three notes to self:

1. Time to re-read Great Expectations
2. Perhaps it is time to move to a camera with more than .1 megapixels
3. Time to expand my marketing skills.

Note to you:

Today it came to me that I read so many of you so very assiduously, and yet I feel that often I miss essential threads.
Sometimes I put one of you in NY, when years ago you moved to MA, or some such. Sometimes I read your elaborately-plotted lives and realize that I have questions to which you have answers if it were only polite to ask. I'm not really talking about
those matters of personal experience which only prurience would cause one to invade (not that I lack any degree of human flaw in any particular respect, but I like to think my flaws are measured and suitably boring). On the other hand, the exercise perhaps benefits from an element of unpredictability about the questions. I mean to ask those plot points which a courteous person would not ask for fear of seeming intrusive, out of place, out of reckoning, inattentive, or just darned incisive.

I rather like those odd UK parliaments with their Question Times. I propose to you something to which you may agree by entering a comment. I propose that you grant me amnesty to ask you a question or questions about your life that I would ordinarily feel too shy to ask directly. The "amnesty" means that I know, before I ask, that asking anyone a question about a novel rather lacks decorum. I also know that many of my questions could be solved by assiduous reading.

You are not bound to answer, and you are free, if you do answer, to answer obliquely. You'll see as readily as I do that
it will be more fun for you if you can be more revelatory, in a very public setting, but I don't want you to tell me something
you'd regret sharing. I am not encouraging you to tell me secrets, as secrets have this beautiful banality about them that
I do not always require of life.

Would you like to grant me amnesty to ask you a question or questions? If so, just type in the comments--I grant you amnesty.

Comments

[spleenless.livejournal.com]

Well, my MSW is a future item. Much to many people's surprise I have no degree - some credits from University of Maryland during my "what do I want to be when I grow up" phase. I have hopes to go back to school and go to UMBC for their school of social work. When I graduated High School I was convinced I would be a theatre professional - not all acting but some backstage work too (I thought perhaps a dramaturge). I went to theatre school in NYC but discovered I did not have the ego to survive auditions on a regular basis.

I loved my job at LARS - the crisis agency - and I learned a great deal about myself during my run there. Leaving was one of the hardest things I ever did. The shelter I work at now is fine, but I miss some of the adrenaline of the crisis work.

Rainey is my quiet child, a saxaphonist and wryly funny. She is her own person with a unique style but finds herself in the odd position of finding herself a trendsetter. It's amusing, because she seems genuinely surprised that people are following her lead. Cora is a force of nature, hard to contain but wonderous to behold. She is much more social and has an adventurous streak. Both are kind and compassionate, they are good kids.

I spent some time in England and Ireland years ago with my family. I would love the girls to have that experience.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That's great that you've accomplished so much without the MSW. If you had one, would that help you get more compensation or autonomy?

I wish I were a saxophonist, if I could become one without work or effort. I hope the girls get to visit the UK and Ireland and repeat your experience.