Wednesday, July 06, 2005
bloggerview #3; with questions by tanya kristine
1) You say you love Oregon. Give me 3 descriptive reasons why?1. no sales tax
2. evergreen trees
3. portland!!!
4. it's a blue state
5. columbia river gorge
6. mt hood
7. cannon beach
8. powells books
9. moderate climate (i am a wuss when it comes to hot weather and humidity)
10. no killer bees (yet)
11. being a borderline hippie, the culture here (in portland) really rocks for me (the smaller towns of oregon are like hickville and that doesn't work so well for me).
12. the willamette river valley (aka the emerald valley). it is what we are naming our first daughter "emerald" for.
13. oregon wine country
14. i grew up here most of my life and both mine and my husband's families are here
15. oh, wait, you only said to give you 3 reasons . . . oops!
2) If I gave you $5000 and you had to leave the country for one month, where would you go, what would you do?
i would go to europe! right now we are trying to plan a long trip to europe that would mostly focus on being in germany and working on our german (to better jon's chances of getting in to a good phd program). if we were only going to be there for one month, my goal would be to fill just my backpack with the essentials (toothbrush, deoderant -- wait europeans don't wear it, i wont need it! -- underwear, camera, sketch pad, train ticket, passport) and just go. stay in youth hostels, meet all kinds of awesome friends and learn as much as i can about the history and current culture of each new place i visit. mostly i want to expand my worldview!
3) Think of something that made you laugh really hard and long - tell us about it.
well, i remember one time recently when my husband and i were up pretty late talking in bed and he was almost falling asleep and was totally relaxing. he went to say something to me and totally drooled all over me! it was pretty funny. we both laughed for a long time.
4) What "profession" do you remember wanting to be when you were around 6 years old?
i wanted to be an artist. from the time i can remember i have always wanted to be an artist. my older sister and i used to play this game where we would cut little squares out of paper and then each draw on them. we would line them all up on the bed and then have my mom come in and pick out her five favorite. i remember being so proud because she always picked mine as her favorite!
5) You're given an assignment to fully research a subject. what would it be about and why? (could be person, place, situation, etc.)
wow . . . that is a really good question! there are so many things i want to know more about like global warming, antioxidants, the effects of pesticides, how to have the most healthy pregnancy and babies of ever, all sorts of historic events, my family's culture and history, the history of the awesome city that i live in . . . the list goes on! but i think right now i would choose -- drumroll please -- "the goddess cultures of prehistory." "why?" you ask. well, because i was raised in a very conservative christian culture that supresses women's abilities to really be involved in worship and religion and all of my life i have been asking the question "why." how does such a male dominated "sun" religion begin? the first narrative of the christian and jewish tradition in the book of genesis (aside from the creation myth) is a story that blames a woman for the entrance of sin and death into the world and subjugates her to the authority of men. what kind of religion is this? and how have women remained a loyal part of it ever since? before the emergence of this religion there is evidence of thriving "moon" religions with female deities that honored the earth and the cyclical nature of life. i want to know more about these religions and views of life and the world. i want to know how the sun religion came to replace the moon religion. i want to know what elements of the female deity remain in this new male oriented trinity as interpreted by religious leaders. i want to learn as much as i can about these traditions so that i can land somewhere in all of it. as a woman, i feel deeply connected to the earth, the seasons, the moon and i know i am a spiritual being of some sort, but i don't feel like that is being supported in the tradition i have come out of. now, friends who have known me a long time: don't worry, i am not just going off the deep end here. i am not going to become a witch or anything (not in your idea of what that word means) but i do need to find some sort of religious story or image (whether in the christian tradition or not) that affirms my identity as a woman. i need an image of a spiritual being that has some female elements in it. a warrior/father god with an obedient son is fine if you are a man, but how does that connect with women? we need images of a nurturing, mothering deity of peace and the constant change of the seasons. if i can find a way to reconcile those images with the christian tradition, maybe i will . . . but what i am saying here is that this is something i want to really research so that i will be more educated on the subject. i don't know if i am ready to totally throw myself into believing in innana or kali or anything, but i am ready to figure out where i want to be spiritually rather than just follow along with what i have been told all of my life.
maybe i've gone too far with this. and i don't really know if i have made myself too clear here, but i guess it will spark some interesting conversation . . . so comment away friends! thanks for letting me be honest.
and thanks for the questions tanya.
say it don't spray it 2:29 PM
37 i heard that
