Truth or Consequences

This week at Sunday Scribblings the prompt is disclosure of self. What's good about you, what's not good about you? And I thought this meme I had hidden in my archives would do the job just fine. They are 35 questions originally posted in Vanity Fair. An exercise into the self that makes you think, reflect, analyze and, above all, be truthful. But I found, as in life, that nothing is ever black and white as many questions required more than one answer.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Feeling the sun's warm rays alight on my face....waking up on a winter morn' and finding the world blanketed in undulating white sheets of snow....a steaming, hot shower on a cold, wintry day.....a baby's smell and giggling fits of joy.....my daughter's smiling face....when my beloved laughs at my fumbles and foibles.....the way he looks at me with eyes of love....his kiss.

2. What is your greatest fear?
That I will wake up one day and not recognize the ones I love. That I will die a slow, painful death that will leave a mark of pain in my loved ones.

3. Which living person do you most admire?
I admire many different people for many different things: strength, courage, kindness, compassion, intelligence, creativity, superior abilities, and the beauty of a soul and heart ......all come to me dressed in different faces....

4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Fear. So useless, yet so difficult to overcome.

5. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Lying: tell the truth, the world will not end and no one will hate you....deceitfulness: not nice....self-serving and/or self-centered personalities.....narcissism.

6. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
I don't rightly know. Something to think about.

7. On what occasion do you lie?
I don't like lying, but if I have to, only to spare someone from being hurt.....or, if I feel telling the truth (if asked) will lead to a heated discussion. Nothing gets resolved.

8. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
Too many to count, yet I'm not vain?

9. What is your greatest regret?
I've had some, but don't dwell....if anything, I've learned.

10. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My husband and child.

11. Which talent would you most like to have?
To be multilingual. I can speak two languages fluently and can navigate myself around two more, but not with comfortable ease. I would love to be able to master them as well.

12. What is your current state of mind?
At peace....at war.

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
That I'd be fully committed to the general well-being of my health.

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
That regardless of the obstacle I'm given, I always overcome.

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
Someone highly artistic who would make a mark in this world in mediums such as art, writing, music, photography,,,,

16. What is your most treasured possession?
My integrity. The fact that I am not a follower.

17. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not seeing a way out.

18. Where would you like to live?
Anywhere where the natural beauty of the planet can be seen from my window.

19. What is your most marked characteristic?
The strength of my spirit. My resolve.

20. Who are your favorite writers?
Shakespeare (his plays), Tennessee Williams, Thoureau, Gaiman, Arturo Perez Reverte, Emily Bronte, Nella Larsen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to name a few. I love to read the fruits and labor of writers who pen with original voices.

21. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Kate from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew: she's witty, clever, shows a facility for language (then, customarily a male trait), headstrong, wild, is not passive nor controlled.

22. Who are your heroes in real life?
Those that fight for our peace, those that defy the tenets of a society that subjugates.

23. What is it that you most dislike?
Cruelty to animals or children.....when people make a big issue out of nothing.....the yaketty-yak-yak of things that have already been said -100 times!

24. What is your motto?
Live your life and mind your business.

25. Favorite Journey?
Life.

26. What do you value most in your friends?
Truth.

27. Which words or phrases do you must overuse?
My husband's pet name.

28. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I've never identified myself with anyone. I believe all of us are unique.

29. What is your greatest extravagance?
Books and cd's.

30. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
Nothing. We are all on our own individual journeys and to change anything would be to change myself. I'm happy with who I am and who I am is due to the road I've taken and walked by myself and with my family.

31. What is your favorite occupation?
Writing.

32. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
That she shows originality and trusts her own voice.

33. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Intelligence, honesty and trustworthiness.

34. How would you like to die?
Happy and at peace.

35. If you could chose what to come back as, what would it be?
Perhaps an eagle, so I can soar high in the sky and be free.

And for whoever wants to borrow these questions in turn, please feel free.....