shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance; strong men believe in cause and effect

1 - Would you prefer to be recognized in your lifetime or by posterity? 

    I follow a guy on IG who writes from the perspective of a (sort of) normal Latvian, sharing info about his country and countrymen. He recently shared that as a result of his posts, some followers have enthused that they want to visit his country and make friends with some Latvians. He then wandered through several short clips of beautiful Latvian sites—none of which had any other people within visual distance. The point was that in his (undeniably beautiful) country, part of what makes it lovely is the lack of people around.

    And so it is with me. My immediate reaction to this question was Good God, I never want to be "recognized"! If it does happen, though, I'd much prefer that it be while I'm alive. It's sort of creepy to think about being talked about when I can't even defend myself. 

2 - Would you rather relinquish some of your brains, some of your beauty, or some of your chutzpah? 

     this presumes that I'm blessed with some of each of these, er, qualities. But I think we need to consider this a little more carefully. Let's start at the end: chutzpah. It is defined as "unusual and shocking behavior, involving taking risks but not feeling guilty." Is that a good thing? Something I should be proud of, and unwilling to relinquish? 

    As for beauty, exactly how much would I have to give up? 10%? Or is it quantified by number? 4.7? 

    Brains...would this be a physical thing, considering that I only have one anyway? A lobotomy? Or a sort of 'insulator' that would deaden the intensity of thought?

    Hmm, that latter bit sounds pretty good, actually. I know I don't have "beauty" to spare. It also seems unlikely that I'm chock full o' chutzpah. But I do think too much, so—I'll take that.

3 - Would you prefer to live in a society that places more value on justice or on forgiveness? 

    justice ("the quality of and conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness") is what I pray for, not mercy ("compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency"). I have a very conservative stance on criminal behavior.

4 - Would you interfere with an ex's love life? 

    I cannot imagine bothering.

5 - Would you resent having your success attributed to luck? 

    I guess it would be mildly annoying, but probably wouldn't matter too much. Other peoples' perceptions of me and my "success" are among the least of my worries.

6 - Would you rather have more time for napping or for making money? 

    napping, for sure. Money is not what drives me.

7 - Would you say that you look better dressed or naked? 

    depends who's looking

8 - Would you return an item inadvertently added to your shopping bag? 

    that depends on the item, its cost, and the store from which it came. If it was the (chain) grocery store and the item was of nominal value, then I wouldn't think twice about keeping it. If it was a piece of jewelry from the hometown shop, I would go to great effort to return it. If it was a clothing store, I would probably take it back—because clothes are pretty personal. A pair of socks, though? Yoink.

9 - Would you rather befriend people smarter than you, dumber than you, or intellectually equal to you? 

    smarter, but I don't have them tested or put through a training program. I'm lucky in the friends I've managed to find.

 

[from Would You?: Questions to Challenge Your Beliefs; the title quotation is from Ralph Waldo Emerson]