I’ve been nominated for a blogging award! Thank you to Nemo at Via Negativa for the nomination. What an honor.

Guidelines

1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
2. Thank the person who nominated you.
3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
4. Answer your nominator’s questions.
5. Nominate up to eleven bloggers.
6. Ask your nominees eleven questions.
7. Notify your nominees by commenting on their blogs.

I’ve been asked:

1. How does your Spiritual Tradition square with your daily life; do you find peace, conflict or both in integrating them? ➡️ More conflict than peace, as evidenced by this blog!, haha. I’m not a naturally good, selfless, or wholesome person, so trying to subdue my nature and live according to my faith is a perpetual battle, and I am admittedly constantly anxious about the consequences of getting it wrong. But, that’s not a bad thing, imo; I’m not sure that peace is necessary. My religion gives me a purpose, which is more important than peace I think.
2. Do you supplement your Tradition with auxiliary philosophies, or are you a purist? ➡️ Purist. Logically, I don’t see how I could be anything else. I used to be a “cafeteria Catholic,” assembling my own version of my religion built on what I liked and didn’t like and mixing in whatever I thought was cool… but I began to wonder, if I’m just going with what I like and don’t like, then my religion is just… myself, isn’t it?
3. What are your favourite foods, and do you have a weakness for any in particular? ➡️ Peanut butter (in both sweet and savory dishes, or just straight out the jar), chocolate, and PB/chocolate combined. I love tofu in various forms, especially cold salads. Love salads. Also hummus. If by “weakness” you mean “inability to resist,” though, I don’t really have any such “weakness” for any food. My self-control is pathologically strong, when it comes to food. I can resist anything.
4. What are your clean guilty pleasures? ➡️ conveniently, I have written a whole post about this! First and foremost in my life, though — the guiltiest and most pleasurable of my many guilty pleasures — is bad music. I absolutely love mainstream hip-hop, the kind that’s all about butts, drugs, clubs, and all that. Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz are two of my favorite musical artists.
5. If the obligations of the current economic order were no longer an order, what would you do with your life? ➡️ Spend a lot more time with my husband. We’d take more family trips, both small (nearby museums, restaurants, resorts, hikes) and big (Europe, Japan). When not enjoying time with our family, my husband and I both would do a lot more writing.
6. What does your utopia look like? ➡️ Ooh, fun one! In my utopia: Catholicism is the norm, and the whole government answers to the Church. Thus, we all support each other and no one is homeless or abandoned. Towns are centered around a parish church, and entirely walkable, and anywhere you can’t go on foot, you can get to with a horse (NO CARS!). Healthcare is 100% free. Extended families tend to live together on family compounds. Like, imagine a little pre-industrial village but with certain post-industrial amenities, such as modern health care, plumbing/electricity, and groceries. Religious are everywhere, just a normal part of life, nuns and monks and priests are an everyday sight, and religion is taught in the village schools and courtrooms and everyone in town pauses at noon and six when the Angelus bells ring. The Forbidden Book List is back in effect, and all media is subject to strict moral guidelines. Also, guns don’t exist.
7. If you could spend time as an anthropological observer in a specific timeline and place, where, why and for how long? ➡️ I’d like to live among the Celtic Saints of Ireland for a few days, like on Skellig Michael or at Glendalough back in their heyday, the seventh century or so. Just to see what it was really like. Their spirituality and architecture speak to my soul. No longer than a few days though because modern amenities like air conditioning and toothpaste also speak to my soul, lol.
8. What is your favourite clean dirty joke? ➡️ I don’t really know any dirty jokes, but I’ll happily share my favorite dumb joke! Q: what’s brown and sticky? A: a stick.
9. If you had a kill-switch for “the grid” like Kurt Russel did in Escape from Wherever, would you press #666? ➡️ I’ve never actually seen these movies, which is surprising because Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken is my husband’s celebrity lookalike (or was, until he cut his hair short). So, I had to Google the plot, here, to get the reference. Basically: no, I don’t think I would. An action hero I am not, I don’t have the guts.
10. Do you believe that life would be much improved by the restoration of the Holmgang in English speaking countries? ➡️ *googles Holmgang* no, no, no. People are dumb, people would be way too quick to abuse this power.
11. What are your least favourite superstitions? ➡️ It’s one of my own invention. I don’t even know how I started this, and as much as I resent it, I can’t help doing it, it’s a reflex now. Whenever I randomly recall a horribly cringe memory (which happens to me all the time, I myself am horribly cringe), I touch my face and if my face is warmer than my hand, it means I actually am a retarded piece of shit and deserve to suffer, but if my face feels cooler than my hand, I’m just overreacting and it’s actually okay. Also, who started the thing about black cats being bad luck? Racist much? My one true feline love was a black cat.

My Questions for my Nominees:

1. What dessert would you be if you were a dessert? And why
2. What about fruit — what fruit would you be if you were a fruit? And also why
3. What is the most fun you’ve ever had in your life? & was this also the happiest day of your life?
4. If you had to name a human baby tomorrow, with no input from anyone else (name is your sole responsibility), what would you name them? (A boy name & a girl name.)
5. What is something cool that you’ve discovered recently?
6. Is there any amount of money for which you would consent to getting a large tattoo on your forehead? (You cannot get it removed, but you may try to cover it with concealer, bangs, a hat, etc.) And if so, what is that amount? And would you do it for a penny less?
7. If you had to get a word or phrase tattooed on your forehead (and again, you cannot have it removed, but may cover it as you wish), what word or phrase would you choose? And why
8. What are some of your favorite words (in any language)?
9. Lately everyone online is saying that 2016 was such a great year for everyone universally. Was 2016 a great year for you? Please elaborate
10. Recommend a book for the reader and make your case for why we should read it
11. Do you think every person has some thing they are meant to be doing with their life? Like a divine calling? Some skill that they can use to contribute to the good of the world, if only they figure out what that is? And if so, what is yours?, and is it something that you’re actively doing?

I always love to hear from:

Bibielle at MyInnerMishMash

Hikaru at HIKARU.blog

I would nominate Nemo again but he’s already done this and I think that’d be against the Guidelines

My Husband, who hasn’t updated his blog since like 2014, but he’ll probably see this anyway bc he checks my blog from time to time

and finally: You, The Reader/My Follower: if you’re one of those who’s been so kind as to “Follow” this site, and you happen to see this, consider yourself nominated and feel free to participate and thank/tag me or whatever.

Thing is, although I’ve been storing my writing here on WordPress since 2023, I’ve only just begun to dip my toes into the WordPress community, and to connect with some of you lovely people. I don’t know a lot of my fellow bloggers here yet. Certainly not well enough to feel comfortable tagging them. Also I have AVPD which makes such things difficult.

I honestly probably won’t even do Step Seven here because that’s too scary, and the nominees might not even feel like doing this challenge on their blogs, which is fine, and I don’t wanna obligate them. But, if you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you (but no pressure and don’t feel obligated!!). If you don’t wanna make a whole blog post feel free to just drop a comment with answers to any of the 11 questions. I’m always eager to hear people’s answers to these questions, no matter who they are.