As long as philosophers have lived (which is a long time) they've been coming up with thought-provoking questions. As long as the internet has been publicly accessible (my whole adult life) people have been sharing said thought-provoking questions with ever-widening audiences.
This week, one of our in-house (often) thought-provoking Hive philosophers, Galen, has done just that: poked my brain and got me thinking. And instead of answering just one of his questions as my post (as I have other times in the past) today, I'm going to answer all eight of them. Am I a sucker for punishment? Maybe. Let's find out!
1. Where you live: Would you rather...
If you could choose between a small shack on an idyllic beach or a cabin in the woods which would you choose and why?
My post, so I'm bending the rules. Ready?
I'm going to pick a cabin in the woods that's within walking distance of an idyllic beach! Haha.
I want to be just far enough away that I can't hear the waves when I sleep.
I want to be surrounded by enough trees that I'm well protected from the coastal winds.
And I want to be close enough to a small but bustling town with people I love, shops for things I need and decent facilities so I can be with others when I want, and retreat to my sanctuary in the woods when I need. ;)
2. Automated or manual: Would you rather...
If you could choose to have an autonomous vehicle or one you had to drive yourself which would you choose?
Ha! My immediate thought is "both". I want both. I want an autonomous one to drive me when I'm too tired to drive and need to sleep. And I want a vehicle I can drive myself the rest of the time because I like to feel in control.
But, to be fair,
to play the game,
if I had to choose,
I'm going to choose a car I can drive myself.
Why? Well, I'm in my early forties and I've been driving a car, that I'm in control of, since I was about 16 years old.
That's a long time yo!
And I know autonomous vehicles will probably take over the roads in my lifetime and I'm going to have to get used to them, but for now, my nervous system feels much calmer at the idea that I get to be in control.
Even if autonomous cars have been shown to make less errors than this experienced human being...
3. Just you or more: Would you rather...
You can choose to be an only child or have several brothers and sisters, which do you choose and why?
This is indeed thought-provoking as I notice that I immediately gravitate toward wanting what I already have. I'm the eldest of three. I have one younger sister and an even younger brother.
While we fought a lot as children I adore them. They were my company, my friends, my teachers.
In some ways, they still are.
So to be an only child... to have grown up with only my Mum and Dad... I think not. Given my parents and the struggles they faced, both independently and together, I think my siblings--though reflecting the issues of the family--were a buffer from my Mum and Dad.
And while my parents did the best they could, and they did pretty good, after all, I'm alive and reasonably well and a pretty decent human, I just feel like it would have been really lonely without my darling siblings.
Good question, GKP. It made me appreciate my bro and sis more than I think I have before, or at least, in a new way. Thank you.
4. The kiss: Would you rather...
You're about to kiss a person deeply for the first time, but their breath smells strongly of either raw onions, garlic, or cigarette smoke. Which would you choose?
Easy! I hate the taste of cigarette smoke and out of onions and garlic I like the latter better, so bring me my darling Brad after he's chewed on some raw garlic (which, he'd probably never do, by the way :P) and I'll happily kiss him ;)
5. Your secrets: Would you rather...
Assuming one of the following things had to happen, would you prefer to have someone read your secret diary, go through the photos on your phone, or check your computer's browser history? Explain your choice and tell us what they might find...if you dare.
Well, this one is kind of easy for me actually, because my secrets aren't really that bad. So, any of these would be fine.
Firstly, I don't have a secret diary. Not anymore anyway. I did as a teenager and as a young adult. If you read those now you'd just seen curiosity, emotional processing, angst, disappointment and expressions of unrequited love.
The closest thing I've had to this recently is my own notes about the traumas I've been processing, or if you got a recording of the sessions I do with my friend/therapist you'd hear about the very honest things that are stressing me out.
But to be honest, often I tell my partner a (very brief) version of what I talked about anyway. And if my family could cope with this level of honesty, I'd tell them too.
If you went through the photos on my phone you'd see... the photos I've put on Hive and haven't got around to deleting yet! Hahaha. You'd also see photos of things at parkrun, flowers and pretty leaves and rocks, and no doubt, screenshots of all manner of useful or inspiring things I've saved (and may never get around to looking at again :P)
And if you checked my browser history you'd probably be bored! You'd find YouTube videos of whatever I've been learning about Human Design, EFT/tapping and nervous system regulation. You'd also find that I looked up directions to go to whichever parkrun we visited most recently. And you might find that I looked up the meaning of a rare word in English that I didn't know the meaning of. All very boring. Sorry to disappoint!
6. Got to die somehow: Would you rather...
Assuming you had to choose between the following three ways of dying... would you rather get eaten by a shark, fall out of a plane without a parachute, or trampled by a herd of elephants?
Morbid much?
Death. We're not much good at thinking about death and dying here in Australia or in so-called "Western" countries as a general rule. We try to avoid talking about it or even thinking about it if we can, as if somehow not giving it attention means it's not going to happen.
But the only thing we can absolutely guarantee about being alive is that we're going to die.
This week a close friend of mine was told by her new GP (family doctor) that the looooong list of unexplainable symptoms she's been struggling with for about three years might be Motor Neurone Disease.
"What's MND?" you ask. It's a slow, awful, terminal illness with no known cure.
Fun, right?
Not so much.
My friend took it like a total champ. After having a minor panic attack and a massive sob session. She's astounding. She's so steeped in her practice of accepting what is that she sat with her feelings, she let herself have a mini breakdown and then in record time (like less than 1 day) she was embracing the fact that she might die much sooner than she expected. (She's only early-40-something years old).
She's now feeling even more joyful and alive than ever before. All because she's looking at death and accepting that, at some point, she is going to die.
It's inspiring as heck!
So while most of us never know how we're going to die and no sane person would pick a scary or painful way to die by choice, if I had to choose one of these three options that Galen so creatively came up with (LOL) then I choose being trampled by elephants.
There's no sensible way to choose such a thing but since I think elephants are amazingly beautiful creatures, at least I'd get to die surrounded by these beauties. That, and I hope it would be fast! LOL.
Now, to something a little lighter!
7. Good looking but no sex: Would you rather...
You can be good-looking but never have sex ever again, or ugly and have plenty of sex. Which would you choose and why?
Well, well, well, this was an interesting thought experiment! I immediately defaulted to the latter, as in, I'll be ugly but I'll have plenty of (amazing) sex, thank you very much!
However, upon second thought I realise there are very real implications for being ugly in a society that values beauty so highly.
How successfully could I do my work in the world as a teacher, a leader, a changemaker if I was ugly? And how ugly are we talking? Are we talking "pretty average, walked past in the street like you're kind of invisible" ugly or are we talking "horrendously ugly like people recoil when they look at your face" ugly?
Because if it's the former, then I choose that and sex.
If it's the latter, then I choose beauty and no sex.
Because there is so my joy and beauty and creativity and contribution and fulfillment that can be experienced in the world without having sex, and I just don't think I could tap into any of that if every time I met the world others didn't even want to look at me.
That, and I'm assuming that this question means I can only have sex with another person. Just sayin'.
And finally, I saved my favourite question for last:
8. Love or fear: Would you rather...
Would you rather be loved or feared? Explain your choice and reasoning.
If you've known me for longer than two minutes (in fact, if we've only just met but you've read this post this entire way through...) then you'll probably know my answer to this question already.
People only believe that to be feared is a good idea when they have not experienced the true power of being loved.
Both being loved and being feared create an immense amount of power within us. But when people are feared by others, they get to have power over other people and they miss out on what it feels like to be truly empowered by the love of others.
When people are loved by others it gives them a chance to really and truly love themselves, to know love from the inside, out.
That is a true and beautiful power that can do wonderful things in the world.
And that is the only kind of power I'm after.
C x
Want to answer any one or all of these questions? Check out this post asap to participate. If it's after 6:30 am UTC Monday 27th Feb then you can join this community to participate in next weekend's, no doubt amusing, prompts ;)
