This, That, and The Other

I was honored by blogger TiongHan, who, after being nominated himself for the Sunshine Blogger Award, paid it forward by nominating my blog, along with a handful of others, for the same award.

Of course, my blog is an award-free blog, so I won’t be following the usual rules. What I will be doing, though, is answering the 11 questions that Tiong posed.

1. What is your sign according to Chinese Astrology? If you don’t know, use the below chart to determine your sign by looking for your year of birth.

I’m a dog. Woof woof!

2. For those unfamiliar with the Chinese zodiac, list the 3 characteristics that you recognize in yourself (use this link to familiarize yourself with your traits).

The link says that people born in the year of the Dog are conservative and full of justice. Well, I’m not politically or socially conservative, that’s for sure, although I will admit to being fiscally conservative. And I definitely see myself as being “full of justice.” It also says, “they only wish to live quietly with their family.” Yeah, that’s probably fits me.

3. Which of the seven deadly sins (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride) are you most guilty of? (‘None’ is not an option anyone would believe anyway. ‘All of the above’ is a sure ticket to damnation.)

Wrath is what I’m feeling most these days toward Donald Trump and his Republican sycophants for what they are doing to destroy my country.

4. What is your favorite song of all time?

Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It always make me tear up.

5. What in heaven’s name compelled you to start blogging?

God told me to.

6. What is your average number of likes per post? Yeah, I can take double digit numbers. I’ll probably turn green with envy.

According to my stats page, just shy of 28 so far this year.

7. Forgive the ignorance of this question, but do you know what Trump accuses Obama of in what is now labeled Obama-gate? Because I don’t have a clue…

Yes. Trump hates Obama and everything Obama did in his eight years as president, so he’s desperately trying to make Obama look bad by using the term “Obamagate.” In the real world, there’s no such thing.

8. What is your favorite football team? And I mean football as in soccer.

Sorry, but I haven’t followed “football as in soccer” since my kids got out of elementary school. Ask me about American football at some point.

9. What are your weaknesses, as no one is likely interested in your strengths. Besides, weaknesses make for much juicier stories, so please don’t fob us off with some generalization or two.

When I was still a young buck and would go on job interviews, I hated it when the interviewer asked, “What would you describe as your biggest weakness?” I’ll tell you the same thing I said to the interviewers who asked me that question. “My biggest weakness,” I would say, “is my inability to describe my biggest weakness.”

10. What is your favorite blog post you’ve written? And we’re dying to know why.

This post. Why? Because it really happened and it’s something I never forgot.

11. What is your favorite poem?

Actually, I’m not a big fan of poetry, but back in high school English lit class, we did have to study some of the world’s great poets, including Scottish poet Robert Burns. Of all of his poems we read, one poem, “To a Louse,” and one particular line in that poem, “O wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us,” really stuck with me.

For a more contemporary interpretation of the quoted line, it essentially means, “It would be great if we could somehow have the gift of being able to see ourselves the way other people see us.”

We really can’t see ourselves as others see us, can we? We see ourselves through our own perspectives, our own perceptions, and our own reality. Few of us can understand how we really come across to those around us or to the world.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, even for just an hour or a day, we could know how others view us? I think that seeing ourselves as others see us would be a gift, but perhaps it would actually be burden. No doubt, though, it would be illuminating.