poll

[rm]

1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?
1a. Why?

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?
2a. What's the response?
2b. What did you do?

3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?
3a. Why?

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

1. My luck
1a. I suspect faith is necessary for it to work, also (and more importantly), I've pushed it to rather ridiculous limits and have always had truly bizarre coincidences occur to save me at the last minute (final exams in college being canceled, companies accidentally paying me twice...)

2. My best current guess: in a long-term stable poly grouping (which I hope happens soon)
2a. The people I tell are amused when I relate the circumstances
2b. This answer has two parts:

A) Gotten info several deeply screwed up relationships that ended quite dramatically.
B) (the reason for A) performed some powerful and highly emotionally risky magick. I did one such ritual a decade ago that eventually resulted in me finding imester (which is naturally one of the stories I tell in 3.) and just last night, I decided to do another one on the upcoming new moon to find others to add to our relationship (both because other means have failed and because I think my life is too placid and could use some shaking up). Amusingly, I decided this very late last night and this is the first time I've mentioned it to anyone else.

3. That depends extremely on the people I am with. Generally though, it's one of a small set of anecdotes about my uses of magick.
3b. I've found these to be a quick way to both let people know about me and to swiftly weed out those folk who would be annoying to tell the other exceedingly quirky details of my life to.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

1. ...damn, I'm not sure. My ability to question myself? Actually, since clearing up that nasty little clinical depression, I have something like 90-95% faith in my ability to write fiction. I also have a random faith in my ability to avoid and/or survive catastrophes.
1a. Because a)I'm a damn good writer and b)weird shit, good reflexes, and a little training, plus historical evidence.

2. My recognized position as a successful pro fiction author who makes a living doing it.
2a. The awards ceremony audience will laugh politely, and think they have some idea, but they won't. Unless I tell them, a little.
2b. Beat my own damn brain chemistry into submission.

3. The good ones. All of them, really. They virus my brain.
3a. I've got a storytelling gene, and I've kissed the Blarney Stone, and I hate it when I get interrupted partway through telling a story.

[spiralflames.livejournal.com]

i started a response to your Q's earlier and erased it..mainly because it was bullshit. so i'm back and compelled by a rather unattractive moment of honesty.
**
1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?
nothing. no thing. perhaps my teaching, but in bad moments, sometimes not even that.
1a. Why?
because i have never been able to perform without thoughts of an audience..if i feel beautiful, it's because someone has told me that. which makes me vulnerable for someone's opinion to the opposite. sometimes that's just insecurity, other times i like to see it as just being receptive to others' perceptions. but i've never been able to look someone in the face and TRULY not care what they think, even if i know they;re idiots.

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?
2a. What's the response?
2b. What did you do?
"here" is where i am musically. people are always amazed, since even educated people seem to persist in the fantasy that music is somehow zapped into the brain by some music fairy, and is not the product of bone-breaking, soul crushing WORK against a society that persists in thinking that what you DO is 'a nice hobby.' what'd i do? not much. i can't run around justifying my life all the time. or i can, but it doesn't do any good...


3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?
3a. Why?
*
hmmm...i seem to have a handful of them, usually about the time when i was an undergrad, which was really the most intense time of my life in ALL respects. why..because the stories are sweet, funny/sad and hold up over time. and they keep the memories, and the people in them, alive.

thanks for provoking some serious thought this morning. and i'm glad you stood up against the bank assholes.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?
My ability to be alone.

1a. Why?
Because I have so much practice. This is not to say that I like this quality; but it is useful.

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?
Self-sufficient, secure, neat, open, focused. I haven't pictured specifics, as I imagine if I've mastered those qualities, the specifics won't matter that much (the when, the where).

2a. What's the response?
"Really?"

2b. What did you do?
Worked my ass off, cut a lot of the bullshit out of my life, gave myself more space to feel and less to think, climbed aboard my intuition and rode it like a wild horse, and learned the fine line between caring about others' needs and making myself disappear.

3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?
There are several. My last years of college and the axis of mono/depression; my life of migraines; and, less publicly, how my father held out a steak knife to me when I was 16 and told me to fall on it.

3a. Why?
Because if I can only tell them the right way, the peg will drop through the slot and I won't have to tell them anymore.

[grendel.livejournal.com]

1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?

My ability to get things done.
1a. Why?

I am stubborn. If I say I will do something, I will not stop until it's accomplished or I am dead.

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?

Sanity and a strong sense of self worth.
2a. What's the response?

most tend to agree. I've had a varied and somewhat exciting life to date.
2b. What did you do?

It's a long, long story. Written in my journal for the most part.

3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?

Past issues.


3a. Why?

because I carry them still. People who get close to me ask questions about my idiosyncracies (sp?) and I have to explain my outlook and how my experience shapes my perspective.

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?
1a. Why?
I am a creative person, and the things I create do not suck. Why? I have, over the course of my life, always thought of myself as someone who desperately must create. And when my things did suck (and do suck, its an ongoing process), I just keep doing them. Keep trying. Its a primal need to make things, from journaling to writing stories to making jewlery to the stupid Christmas crafts that seem to make people smile even if they come out wrong. I define myself as someone who makes things, and if I doubted that, I'd doubt the defition of who I am.

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?
Already did that. I was in bed with my hubby on our honeymoon.

2a. What's the response?
Him: "I'm pretty clear on what you did...wedding, sex, tickets..."

2b. What did you do?
I overcame a deep fear inside myself that I could ever love and trust someone again. Forget the wedding, which, while nightmarish, was one bad dream before the good. I had a man who broke me inside through physical, mental, and emotional means until I was contemplating killing myself to escape him. I came all the way back up from that place and got away from him. Built a life. Defended that life from him and all comers. And was lucky enough to trust myself to find someone who was not like that. Is not like that. Will never be like that. Someone I can let down my defenses in front of. Someone I can protect and love and tickle fight and occasionally hurt accidentally, but who will never, ever, hurt me that way.

3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?
There are a few. One is the story of my dad torturing me as a child because I could not say my name--it's comprised of two syllabels I couldn't pronounce properly. So I generally left out the "L" sound, and changed the "r" sound to "w." So I couldn't say "Lori" I said "Owie." And my dad would say "You're name is Owie" and I'd say, "no, daddy, no, my name is Owie!" until I was red in the face.

3a. Why?
I'm not sure. I am the closest to my dad of anyone in the family. We are good friends, as well as father and daughter. He has always protected me. Always taken care of me. My mother hasn't always been there, and has occasionally been the one dealing the badness out. I thinkt he story is funny because it was a rare instance of my father's sense of humor turning a little dark; it never got any darker than that, but its an insight into where I get my dark sensibilities, and a warning not to go to far and hurt other people (maybe). Or maybe I just think it's funny. Hard to tell.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

1. What about yourself do you have absolute unshakeable faith in?
1a. Why?
My ability to handle money. I dislike it intensely, and frequently, but I can deal with that. I have managed more money than I ever thought I would have and I've lived with almost no money at all. The bills get paid, my credit rating is good, and I never worry too much about balancing the checkbook.

2. One day you will utter this sentence: "You wouldn't believe what I've done to get here." Where's "here"?
2a. What's the response?
2b. What did you do?
Here is here, I think. This life, this me. I think the best response I could get to that would be the a clink of glasses and a silent toast to all the lives that have fallen by the wayside.

What have I done? It could be a long list. But the most important part of it is that I never stopped moving. And here I am. In twenty years, we will do it all over again.

3. What story are you compelled to tell over and over again?
3a. Why?
Oh lots. The stories about the fucking monkey and the Prince of Dorkness rank highest I suppose. Mostly because they're hysterical and they convince people to never ever ever go near those things.