one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy

2. Do you actively try to avoid negative experiences in life? 

    well, yeah - because I'm not a masochist. I don't avoid challenge or complexity and am actually charged up and driven by it. I do avoid stuff that I know will hurt me, without offsetting rewards. 

 

Head In The Sand GIFfrom Head In The Sand GIFs

3. What stops you from being happier? 

    incidental things. Annoyances, health issues, money woes. My own trouble with using time wisely - laziness, poorly thought out priorities. 

4. Could you kill to save your own life? 

    yes

5. Do you believe in a bright future for humanity? 

    this is the kind of question that makes me bad at job interviews. I read it and cringed. What difference would it make, this belief? And what makes humanity's future "bright"? Surely that would mean different things to different people.

6. Do you have a purpose guiding you through life? 

    nope, I don't have one motto or goal or purpose. What I want and need has changed since I started thinking I had a clue about these things.

7. Do you often go against yourself? 

    this hits the "ignorance is bliss" button for me, and reminds me of a passage from The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson, a micro-study of a group of West Pointers after graduation in 1966. A group is performing a complex swimming exercise which is made more difficult by fighting it; the point of the activity is to realize that relaxing and working with it makes it smoother. One character advises another: "Try to go easier in life." 

    It doesn't mean to take the easy way out. It doesn't mean: don't try. It certainly doesn't mean that challenges aren't worth attempting. The point is that life is hard enough sometimes, so don't make it worse - for yourself, or anyone else. Don't set yourself up to fail. 

8. Share irony from your life.

    • the phrase "hold still" makes me flinch

    • being asked to tell a story makes my brain mute

    • I deeply crave security, but chafe when I get it

9. Do you ever think about humans going extinct? 

    "going extinct" seems unlikely to me. "Fucking things up irretrievably" is much more likely.

10. Would you be afraid of seeing a psychologist? 

    ha! I was married to one. Just seeing one professionally is nothing compared to that.

11. Do you think violent entertainment causes or prevents real violence? 

    yes, both. People who are predisposed to violence can be drawn to violent entertainment, or numbed by it, or inspired by it. People who, on the other hand, are neutral or not disposed to violence can be repelled by such entertainment. I watch a lot of martial arts and war films and haven't yet turned into a big kicker or war-monger. Pretty sure that the issue isn't the entertainment but the person who takes part in it.

[from here; the title quotation is by Leo Tolstoy, from War and Peace]