50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind: #1-5

**I tried posting this earlier and the damn thing crashed w/o any autosave so all was lost.  Let's pretend it was the greatest prose ever and now it's gone to the world. 

*moment of silence*

Okay, now on to what is merely a pale imitation of the inspirational prose I wrote earlier (and, I must reiterate, which is now lost to humanity):

I first saw these questions on the blog Dancing Brave which I've been reading for several years and I love.

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

On my bad days, I always feel like I'm about 12 years old and people are going to discover that I'm posing as an adult and I'm going to get in big trouble.  Luckily, those days are few and far between.  Typically, I feel about 25.  Close enough to high school to remember but far enough away to thank my lucky stars.  I feel like I have so much potential ahead - bad knees and back be damned!

2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
Never trying, hands down.  If I had never tried graduate school, I wouldn't have met some of my best friends or married the love of my life.  I wouldn't have had Ella and I wouldn't have ended up 3000 miles away with a handful of awesome new friends and tons of new experiences.  Has it sucked?  Yep - it's sucking right now, in fact.  Was it worth it?  Totally.  Failing is terrible but staying inside with the covers over one's head is even worse.

3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
Because life is short, not perfect.  Life is full of dentist appointments and waiting in lines and being kind when you really just want to kick someone in the teeth because we live in communities - constantly connected with people.  We can't always just go on vacation when it pleases us or stay home when we don't want to go to that meeting because we live connected with others.  We have to find a balance between what is best for us and for our herd.

4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
Given the sheer volume of the words that come out of my mouth, I will have said more.  However, knowing that, I am always striving to do more - whether it's around the house, in the community, or for people further afield.

5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
I would love to see more empathy for our fellow creatures.  Craig and I have talked a lot lately about the concept of the neighbor.  Jesus gave two commandments: Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Too often, we think of neighbors as those like us - the person we share a boundary line with, the person in the supermarket, the parent in the playgroup.  But it's  bigger than that.  It was bigger than that in 15AD and it's even bigger now.  We are so connected as a society and as a global civilization that it's a common truth that what we do here - what we buy, what we don't buy, what causes we support or disparage - affects things on a global scale.  Deliberation and thought should go into the choices we make because they affect our neighbors - be it down the street or in villages in China.  People argue constantly for political philosophies that allow humans half a  country or world away to be chewed up and spit out because the market willed it but they balk when they see it happen to their friends.  I wish more people would realize that the people at the mercy of others and of global forces are someone's friends and maybe a little perspective and empathy would go a long way toward care and love of neighbors the world over.

More questions to come!  :)