christyotwisty's 5 questions for June of 2023, answered by me...
1. Describe the most expensive object you'd like to buy.
Does 20 - 100 Acres of land in a good location count as
an object? If so: that. Otherwise, meh- I have what I
need. If something breaks I'll buy a replacement.
2. What is something the generation preceding you loves that
you don't understand?
Viewing accumulation of goods as a form of success. That may
not be true of all in the preceding generation... but is
absolutely true of the members of said generation I interact
with the most.
3. What is something the generation succeeding you loves that you
don't understand?
I'm not sure. I don't really know anyone that falls into that
age group really. I suppose: being on a smartphone or tablet
or the like when hanging out with people in person. I'm not
sure if that is still a thing (or if young people hanging out
in person is a thing), but the people I know on the younger
edge of my generation started doing that a lot and I just did
not get it and often would leave a place if everyone was just
on their phones.
4. What holiday in your calendar needs to be replaced, and with
what other observation or commemoration?
To be honest I do not really do much *specific* holiday stuff.
I love getting together for a meal with family. But I do not
care at all about dressing up in costumes, giving or receiving
gifts (I outright do not want to receive anything other than
food and company), painting eggs, etc. I do have a small child
and so we do some of that, but all holidays are replaceable
with anything else for me. I am adamantly non-religious (I 100%
do not believe in any conception of "god" that any religion
that I know of offers) and I am very much not patriotic (I do
not think we have things better where I am or that we as a nation
hold any moral high ground or anything of the sort and would
just as soon live somewhere else... inertia keeps me here I
suppose. I dont have a great desire to leave, but dont have
a great desire to stay either. My family is here so I am here.
Anyway, I have digressed. Most holidays revolve around either
religion or the religion of state... since I do not care for
either, holidays have no real ceremonial value to me. It is just
a day that I get to spend with family. As such they are all fine.
5. What do you think it means to be redeemed? Have you felt redeemed
at one time? Can one be redeemed an iota without the drama of a
constructed fiction narrative?
So, I looked it up to make sure I was using the word correctly. The
dictionary gives a varied and sweeping definition with many forms.
The definitions that seem to fit here are:
- to atone for
- to change for the better
- to release from blame or debt
- to free from the consequences of sin
There were many more, but these seem the most in line with the query.
I do not believe in the concept of sin, so that one is just fairyland
nonsense to me, so I will ignore it for this question.
I think to be redeemed would mean to have made effort to make ammends
for a wrongdoing (an external action), to change yourself for the
better (an internal action), and to be recognized as having done such
by a wronged party (an action external to the self entirely).
I'm not sure that I have felt redeemed in that way. I feel that I have
done the two things that I can in the above paragraph and that a valid
third party has recognized that action. According to the above, that
should count... but I feel like I carried things with me anyway. Which
brings me around to the idea that redemption is something you give
yourself and that you cannot truly be redeemed by an outside authority.
To the final part: yes. But again, I believe it to be an internal state
and thus may or may not lend itself well to certain types of fiction.
Furthermore, I do not think that most constructed fiction naratives do
not ascribe to my view in full and mostly just go through the motions
of apology.
