Sophry's Choice

The following questions were posed to me by my pal, Sophry, of Sophrosynegirl. These are thought provoking questions, fitting that they come from a woman whose blog name reflects the ideal of knowing oneself in order to be in control of oneself (if I recall my philosophy classes from college correctly). I will not tag anyone to answer them, but feel free to do so in my comments or in your own blog. If you do answer them in your blog, leave me a comment so I can come read them. And go read Sophry's blog, enjoy her beautiful writing, and thank her for these great questions!

World's going to end in 24 hours, what do you do?

Hold my family close and make sure they know how much they are loved.

If you could be anyone at any time period in any part of the world, who would you be & what would you be doing?

Queen Elizabeth I of England. She was a powerful, intelligent, well-educated woman at a time when women were not valued as people. She chose to not marry in order to not dilute her power, which took incredible guts in those days. Once you get past the fact that people smelled bad , had fleas, and killed each other all the time, it was an exciting time in history. I would, like Elizabeth, be a strong advocate for the Reformation. I would take whatever lovers I wanted, reputation be damned.

Who is your alter-ego?

I call her Miranda. She is fearless, says what she feels and thinks, and doesn't take crap from anyone. She only exists in my mind, but she's a pretty cool chick.

If you could do it all again, what would you change, if anything?

Oh, there is so much I would change. I would take back a lot of stupid things I've done and said that alienated friends and lovers alike. I expect people think I would say I wouldn't have married Spousehole. I think I would marry him again, however, because I can't imagine living life without my wonderful children. They are special little people and I wouldn't have them without him. I would, however, make sure that he stayed on his meds. That wouldn't solve all our problems, but it would make it easier to solve them TOGETHER.

Supposing reincarnation were reality, would you come back a man or woman? Why?

While it would be interesting to try being a man, I think overall I would prefer to come back as a woman. I enjoy being a woman too much! Think about it: we can be whatever we choose – tough, soft, aggressive, gentle, bitchy, sweet – all at once! I think men don't really have that luxury. “Manliness” has a pretty set definition that a lot of men feel they need to live up to. “Womanliness” is whatever we want it to be. I think women can be freer because of this.