It’s Monday and Melanie is out with another edition of Share Your World.

Fill in: ‘If I were really completely honest, I would say that …’ This is a question for ‘radical honesty’. What are the things you wouldn’t normally say? Things you would otherwise actually hide? What’s on your mind? What would you really like to be able to say?

If I were really completely honest, I would say that being “completely honest (i.e., brutally honest) is no way to win friends and influence people. While honesty is the best policy, sometimes you have to couch that honesty in a way that doesn’t hurt others. So rather than being “radically” honest, I would try to figure out a way to make my point without making matters worse or destroying a relationship.

Have you ever broken anything? What about rules?

I’ve broken traffic laws (mostly by driving faster than the posted speed limit). I once went through the express (15 items or less) line at the grocery store with 16 items. I also have a tendency to break arcane grammatical rules, like never start a sentence with a conjunction or end one with a preposition.

Are you also afraid of spiders? What is your biggest fear, other than spiders? (If you’re not afraid of spiders, use your biggest phobia instead.)

I am not afraid of spiders, but I’m not a fan of spiders, either. As to a phobia, which is defined as an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something, I don’t have a true phobia. That’s not to say I’m fearless. It’s just that my fears are neither extreme or irrational.

Do you think time goes faster as you get older?

Definitely. When I was a kid, time traveled at a snail’s pace, but now, my god, it whizzes by. Take 2021, for example. That year lasted for the blink of an eye.

Please share something that really inspired you from this last week or month.

I think what inspires me the most are those of you who read my blog, who respond to my prompts, who create your own prompts that inspire others, and who share your worlds with the rest of us.