The feedback has been great on the tough questions. So here is another bunch.
Asking questions for the examined life… Great stuff.
- Do I listen to others? What do they have to say about that? Am I listening to how what they say fit? Am I listening to what they are up to this time? Am I listening if I agree or not? Am I really listening or just waiting for them to finish so I can speak?
- Do I pray only when I want something? Do I see people only when I need or what something? Do I think only of myself? Do I think of prayer as a food order at McDonald’s?
- Do I procrastinate? Or just putting off things? Do things pile up around me? Dreams, plans, aspirations… in a pile of broken dreams?
- Do I read enough? Other than the sports papers. Other than the gossip papers. Other than other people’s blogs. Do I ever finish a book? Or do I have piles of books… that I had no patience to read the whole thing?
- Do I smile more than I frown? It’s not your fault, you say? Is the world a nasty place and unless you frown it may get worse? Are you one of those people that make sure the world knows that it could be better?
- Do I spend enough time with my family? Do I spend too much time with my family? Do I have a life independent of my family? Do I have an identity, a personality, an aspiration for my own life, for my own expansion, for my own relationship with life?
- Do I stand up for myself? Or do I allow other people to walk all over me? Do I choose where to eat, what to eat, or do I follow other people’s lead slavishly? Do I behave as if I were as important, as valid as other people, or do I act out a script that says I am less than and then sulk?
- Do I surround myself with good people? Or am I looking for people that will look up to me, so I don’t have to get bigger? Smarter? More educated? Better?
- Do I take risks? Or am I walking in the middle of the road, always the same thing… that after I die people will say: here goes someone who didn’t make waves and didn’t live… not really?
- Do I take time out for myself? Or am I the last person I will take time for? Is that because if I took time for myself then I would have to, maybe, produce something or make something of myself?
- Do I thank people enough? Or do I only notice what I do for people? Do I consider that my contribution is more important than theirs? That they owe me but I don’t owe them? Am I afraid to thank they because then they would know that I have noticed what they have given me, and now it’s my turn to do or give something?
