100 Things About Me
I laughed with enormous delight to read the Yarn Harlot's 100 things!I have no idea if I can come up with 100 things about me, but maybe a few at a time, I will eventually. So here goes (perhaps to be continued...)
1. I do cook soups and find them very satisfying with a slice of toasted whole wheat bread and butter. I was usually the only one that really enjoyed them when I was cooking for the family, however. Now, soups are difficult to make in small enough batches not to go to waste.
2. I don't like freezing left-overs. If I do, they don't get eaten, they get forgotten.
3. I'm mostly a vegetarian--a vegetarian at home, sometimes enjoying usually chicken when I go out to eat.
4. I was born in Somerset West, South Africa, to Finnish parents.
5. I spent my childhood in Ethiopia, Finland, and Canada.
6. I continued my education (undergraduate work toward Secondary Education certificate/BA, major French, minor Biology) at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan; Seminaire Adventiste in Collonges-sous-Saleve, France; Memorial University in Nfld, Canada; (RN) General Hospital School of Nursing, St. John's, Nfld.
7. I have no desire to further my education unless it is with hands-on courses such as watercolour painting; life drawing; pottery; spinning and weaving; yoga; belly dancing; adobe/ceramic/rammed earth house building; garden design with natural plants; herbal remedies; things like that...
8. I used to be quite religious and devoted to the tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist church as a teenager, but began to question many dogmas at the same time, in a gradual process that led to #9.
9. At the age of 24 or so, I made an intentional break with the church and the paternal judao-christian root &traditions of my religion, when a friend 'discovered' that the family on earth is a microcosm of heaven: Father as God-head, Mother as subordinate Spirit, and children as--I forget what...Instinctually, I felt this was wrong, but unequipped to argue from any philosophical/theological standpoint, I could only disagree.
Later, he did come to me with another change in his thinking, but for me that was too late. For me, a 'god' that imposed hierarchies based on arbitrary divisions such as race, or sex, was not a god worth worshiping.
As soon as I made that decision, all sorts of new viewpoints opened up to me and I was led to read all sorts of interesting things about the history of the human search for & beliefs in god/gods/goddesses/ angels/ faeries, etc.
10. I was married for 17 years and have three adult children who no longer live with me.
11. I'm a very left-leaning liberal in my views, and don't apologize for it! I think we are experiencing a reactionary swing in the political climate in North America that belies the actual progress we have made in social and feminist freedoms and equality.
12. I'm afraid that the reactionary swing to the right may destroy humanity and the world as we know it, before we wake up and get back on the path of respect for the natural world and its resources, and true love and concern for our fellow man as part of this fragile biosystem we call our Earth home.
13. If that destruction happens, I know, as Harold Horwood once said, there will be another life-form dancing on the shores of this earth in our place.
14. My Dad always said : "Everything is relative." I like to think he meant in some sense similar to Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum theory, theories of chaos and complexity, that the observer has a mysterious effect that changes the materiality of the observed at an incredible rate, that our perception is more fractal than Euclidian. He probably meant something much more prosaic, because he is often quite black and white in his values, he thinks whites really have some superiority to the blacks in the South African situation, and his cultural tastes are decidedly orthodox, whether he understands the orthodox or not.
15. My Dad also once said, when a mother skunk and her babies stopped traffic in all four lanes on a busy street one Saturday morning: "That's what it is when you have a reputation!"
16. Another Dad saying, when I suggested some silver as a Christmas present for my Mom: "Those kinds of things are not for people like us."
He was raised in a community not too far removed from the old feudal system; in fact, he can still remember all the small landholders going to help the big landowner take in the hay and being treated to a big communal meal (was that payment??).
17. Does it seem like I'm talking about me in a roundabout way, by describing some of the people in my life instead?
18. My parents were always very health-conscious, vegetarians like most Seventh-day Adventists, but more so, even being strict vegan for many years. I'm not dogmatic about it (I hope), but I try to live as healthy a life as I can.
19. I shop organic as much as possible.
20. I worry about petrochemicals in my candles, household cleansers and cosmetics.
21. I make my own vegetable-oil based soap, with essential oils, organic botanicals and additives. Sometimes I buy handmade soap from artisans to compare and enjoy their unique nature.
22. I use herbal teas, ointments and massage oils to flavor, enhance and treat my life.
23. I listen to French language radio in the car, to keep up my skills--which have sadly deteriorated due to disuse.
24. I love world-ethnic music. It takes me to places I where I long to travel.
25. I have two cats (male) and two dogs (female). The dogs sleep in my bed, which mostly works out ok. It is sometimes a little difficult to change your position when pinned on two sides by dogs.
26. I'm a paper-packrat. I save all sorts of things, magazines, clippings from newspapers, even whole sections of the paper... I even print things off the net that I then save in paper form...
27. I worry I'll be one of those crazy old ladies that has to navigate through tunnels in her house formed by stacks and stacks of old newspapers and such, after my tendency turns to a pathology of packrattedness!
28. I worry I'll die and somebody will have to go through all my papers, wondering: "Why did she keep that??"
29. I play the piano. Less often than I used to, but I still play once in a while, losing myself in the music for hours. Once upon a time, I was going to study music in university.
30. I love the old music from the WWII era and even before, the age of big bands, unabashed romance and innocence in the lyrics of melodic easy to sing-along-with songs.
31. I love all kinds of music. I'm often embarrassed because I don't know the title or the singer(s). But I probably know the song, once I hear it.
32. I love making things with my hands, be it knitting, spinning, gardens, meals...but I have a plethora of unfinished projects all over the house.
33. I'm neurotic and constantly seek adulation by showing off my works- in-progress to anybody who will look. It doesnt' matter that the works-in-progress often are never completed.
34. I spend a lot of time imagining how my planned gifts of hand-made objects will change the lives of their recipients into a utopia of health and happiness, forever. I spend far less time actually making these hand-made objects. I often have to give up completing these hand-made objects because I just can't meet the deadlines of events like Christmas. What's the point of knitting the son-in-law some warm woolly socks for (what event is next, Valentine's Day? Easter?) probably the blasted heat of summer, by the time I finish those socks I imagined would be sooooo cool! It doesn't occur to me to get a jump on Next Christmas...that would be too efficient!
OK. That's all I can do for now. In steering away from self-congratulation, I veer toward self-flagellation. No middle-of-the road balance for me, OH NO!!
1. I do cook soups and find them very satisfying with a slice of toasted whole wheat bread and butter. I was usually the only one that really enjoyed them when I was cooking for the family, however. Now, soups are difficult to make in small enough batches not to go to waste.
2. I don't like freezing left-overs. If I do, they don't get eaten, they get forgotten.
3. I'm mostly a vegetarian--a vegetarian at home, sometimes enjoying usually chicken when I go out to eat.
4. I was born in Somerset West, South Africa, to Finnish parents.
5. I spent my childhood in Ethiopia, Finland, and Canada.
6. I continued my education (undergraduate work toward Secondary Education certificate/BA, major French, minor Biology) at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan; Seminaire Adventiste in Collonges-sous-Saleve, France; Memorial University in Nfld, Canada; (RN) General Hospital School of Nursing, St. John's, Nfld.
7. I have no desire to further my education unless it is with hands-on courses such as watercolour painting; life drawing; pottery; spinning and weaving; yoga; belly dancing; adobe/ceramic/rammed earth house building; garden design with natural plants; herbal remedies; things like that...
8. I used to be quite religious and devoted to the tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist church as a teenager, but began to question many dogmas at the same time, in a gradual process that led to #9.
9. At the age of 24 or so, I made an intentional break with the church and the paternal judao-christian root &traditions of my religion, when a friend 'discovered' that the family on earth is a microcosm of heaven: Father as God-head, Mother as subordinate Spirit, and children as--I forget what...Instinctually, I felt this was wrong, but unequipped to argue from any philosophical/theological standpoint, I could only disagree.
Later, he did come to me with another change in his thinking, but for me that was too late. For me, a 'god' that imposed hierarchies based on arbitrary divisions such as race, or sex, was not a god worth worshiping.
As soon as I made that decision, all sorts of new viewpoints opened up to me and I was led to read all sorts of interesting things about the history of the human search for & beliefs in god/gods/goddesses/ angels/ faeries, etc.
10. I was married for 17 years and have three adult children who no longer live with me.
11. I'm a very left-leaning liberal in my views, and don't apologize for it! I think we are experiencing a reactionary swing in the political climate in North America that belies the actual progress we have made in social and feminist freedoms and equality.
12. I'm afraid that the reactionary swing to the right may destroy humanity and the world as we know it, before we wake up and get back on the path of respect for the natural world and its resources, and true love and concern for our fellow man as part of this fragile biosystem we call our Earth home.
13. If that destruction happens, I know, as Harold Horwood once said, there will be another life-form dancing on the shores of this earth in our place.
14. My Dad always said : "Everything is relative." I like to think he meant in some sense similar to Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum theory, theories of chaos and complexity, that the observer has a mysterious effect that changes the materiality of the observed at an incredible rate, that our perception is more fractal than Euclidian. He probably meant something much more prosaic, because he is often quite black and white in his values, he thinks whites really have some superiority to the blacks in the South African situation, and his cultural tastes are decidedly orthodox, whether he understands the orthodox or not.
15. My Dad also once said, when a mother skunk and her babies stopped traffic in all four lanes on a busy street one Saturday morning: "That's what it is when you have a reputation!"
16. Another Dad saying, when I suggested some silver as a Christmas present for my Mom: "Those kinds of things are not for people like us."
He was raised in a community not too far removed from the old feudal system; in fact, he can still remember all the small landholders going to help the big landowner take in the hay and being treated to a big communal meal (was that payment??).
17. Does it seem like I'm talking about me in a roundabout way, by describing some of the people in my life instead?
18. My parents were always very health-conscious, vegetarians like most Seventh-day Adventists, but more so, even being strict vegan for many years. I'm not dogmatic about it (I hope), but I try to live as healthy a life as I can.
19. I shop organic as much as possible.
20. I worry about petrochemicals in my candles, household cleansers and cosmetics.
21. I make my own vegetable-oil based soap, with essential oils, organic botanicals and additives. Sometimes I buy handmade soap from artisans to compare and enjoy their unique nature.
22. I use herbal teas, ointments and massage oils to flavor, enhance and treat my life.
23. I listen to French language radio in the car, to keep up my skills--which have sadly deteriorated due to disuse.
24. I love world-ethnic music. It takes me to places I where I long to travel.
25. I have two cats (male) and two dogs (female). The dogs sleep in my bed, which mostly works out ok. It is sometimes a little difficult to change your position when pinned on two sides by dogs.
26. I'm a paper-packrat. I save all sorts of things, magazines, clippings from newspapers, even whole sections of the paper... I even print things off the net that I then save in paper form...
27. I worry I'll be one of those crazy old ladies that has to navigate through tunnels in her house formed by stacks and stacks of old newspapers and such, after my tendency turns to a pathology of packrattedness!
28. I worry I'll die and somebody will have to go through all my papers, wondering: "Why did she keep that??"
29. I play the piano. Less often than I used to, but I still play once in a while, losing myself in the music for hours. Once upon a time, I was going to study music in university.
30. I love the old music from the WWII era and even before, the age of big bands, unabashed romance and innocence in the lyrics of melodic easy to sing-along-with songs.
31. I love all kinds of music. I'm often embarrassed because I don't know the title or the singer(s). But I probably know the song, once I hear it.
32. I love making things with my hands, be it knitting, spinning, gardens, meals...but I have a plethora of unfinished projects all over the house.
33. I'm neurotic and constantly seek adulation by showing off my works- in-progress to anybody who will look. It doesnt' matter that the works-in-progress often are never completed.
34. I spend a lot of time imagining how my planned gifts of hand-made objects will change the lives of their recipients into a utopia of health and happiness, forever. I spend far less time actually making these hand-made objects. I often have to give up completing these hand-made objects because I just can't meet the deadlines of events like Christmas. What's the point of knitting the son-in-law some warm woolly socks for (what event is next, Valentine's Day? Easter?) probably the blasted heat of summer, by the time I finish those socks I imagined would be sooooo cool! It doesn't occur to me to get a jump on Next Christmas...that would be too efficient!
OK. That's all I can do for now. In steering away from self-congratulation, I veer toward self-flagellation. No middle-of-the road balance for me, OH NO!!
posted by Kati at 4:54 p.m.
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