6, 7, 16, 54--I think these are ones that haven't been asked yet! :)
6) Do you have any strange phobias?
I donât know if either of these graduate to the level of phobia, exactly, but I might as well mention something here. I hate hate hate getting shocked, even little static electricity shocks, and I used to get those all the goddamn time (especially in the winter). And not only did I hate getting shocked if I, say, reached for a metal doorknob, it seems like other kids in grade school think thatâs hilarious, which I also didnât enjoy. So I got into the habit of surreptitiously touching some other part of the door first; this was entirely magical thinking, as usually the other part should have shocked me anyway (being just as metallic as the doorknob) or wouldnât be conductive enough to ground me (the wood). But confirmation bias coupled with the fact that I really didnât get shocked that often in the first place made that a habit. I donât think Iâve done it in years, but even in university I caught myself doing it unconsciously a couple of times - of course, now that behaviour would have been more embarrassing to explain than just getting shocked, anywayâŚ
Also, I have zero idea where this comes from, but I have this kind of visceral revulsion towards jewelry in certain contexts. I canât remember if Iâve mentioned this before. Like, if I was cleaning off the coffee table at home growing up and my mom or my sister had left some rings or some earrings there, my skin would crawl at the thought of picking them up. The jewelry in question could be perfectly clean - I felt the same way about, say, a ring that my mom would have cleaned in the sink and left on the counter.
This, too, has lessened a bit with age, and I seem to have less of a problem with, for example, wood (this is, yes, a small part of the reason that my wedding band is wood). And even if I donât have to touch anything, sometimes (seemingly almost randomly) a certain amount or type of jewelry will bug me viscerally. For example, when AnaĂŻs and I watched all of the Friends Thanksgiving episodes last American Thanksgiving, I didnât realize that all of the rings that Phoebe wears were stressing me out until we hit the tenth one, where she suddenly is wearing only a couple, and it was actually a relief the first time I saw her hands. I hadnât even realized it was bugging me! I feel like I might have told that story here before, but canât find it, anyway. This, by the way, feels like it might be the single weirdest thing about me, and I canât even begin to explain it; thereâs no traumatic childhood experience that Iâm aware of, no logical reason, and my reaction isnât nuanced or intellectual in any way; nor is it predictable.Â
7) Whatâs your religion?
I might have mentioned this at some point before too, but neither of my parents are particularly religious, and we were raised without any religion (some Christmas time Church of England services with my dadâs mom aside). Religion simply was not a thing at all in my childhood until I was old enough to begin reading about the wider world, and so I first experienced religion as a thing that people believed, not a thing that was true and shaped our own lives. Maybe as a result of never actually having anything to rebel against, I donât think I was ever an atheist, although agnosticism or even apathetic agnosticism (âwe canât know and I donât careâ) was certainly my default position for much of my adolescence and early adulthood.Â
I still donât follow, attend, or practice any particular religion, but I wouldnât say Iâm entirely irreligious at this point. Getting my bachelors and masters in philosophy has something to do with that (Spinoza, Kierkegaard, and so on), as does anything from Flannery OâConnorâs writing to some of the more trenchant pages from my page-a-day Zen calendar to the way Sam Amidon and Low play religious songs to conversations with my friend Justin to pretty much all of Slacktivist. At this point I doubt Iâll ever be any kind of denominational Christian, but I do have immense respect for those people who Iâd consider actual Christians (hint: not the religious right), and enough fondness for some of the âgood bitsâ of the Bible (Job, the prodigal son, etc) that I plan to wade through the rest of it some day.
My knowledge of other religions isnât as developed, because despite what people say North America is still largely Christian, culturally, but to the extent that Iâve read Hindu texts (the Bhagavad Gita mostly, for class) or Zen ones, or what have you, Iâve found about the same level of insight and misapplication that you do with Christian ones. I have at least one tumblr friend who doesnât consider themselves Christian because they feel that to call yourself that you have to really take what the Bible says seriously and theyâre not capable of or willing to do that right now, and I respect that immensely. I think religion is and ought in practice to be an immensely serious thing to which one devotes oneself, and you donât see a lot of that in modern Western culture; you see a lot of ideology and lip service instead.
16) Do you have a collection of anything?Â
Less so than last August! As Iâve mentioned, Iâve cut down my CD collection probably by 5/6ths or more, got rid of probably half my DVDs, books, comic books, and vinyl, and aside from all of those rather prosaic ones I donât collect much. But I do keep all of my ticket stubs, in chronological order, rubberbanded together, and I do try and grab the setlist to every good concert I go to.
54) You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and whatâs even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?Â
I really want to cop out and pick omnipotence or something, and immortality is extremely tempting (especially if I could share it, too), but in keeping with what I feel is more the spirit of this question Iâm going to say telekinesis; configured/powerful/fine-grained enough such that I could also make myself fly, at considerable speeds without being unable to breathe/dying from cold/ripping my clothes off (weâre talking ridiculous Marvel Comics-style telekinesis here). Itâs offensive, itâs defensive, itâs transport, it can be subtle or overwhelming, moving would be a breeze, and itâs handy around the house.
