Blog: Ramblings and Rants

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17

year

3

I Don’t Like To Talk About…

This Slant can be glibly answered with a trite response about a phobia or dislike (e.g. “I don’t like to talk about about spiders or politics”), but I entreat you to search your soul. Tell your readers about one topic that makes you uncomfortable to discuss—and why it makes you uncomfortable. Open your ID and tell a fear or pain; open your heart and trust your readers.

If, in blogging your Slant, there isn’t a lump in your throat the whole time, you aren’t being honest enough with yourself.

week

16

year

3

I Wish I Was…

Somewhere? Someone? With…? Without…? More…? Less…?

No matter how self-aware, how happy you are with your life, locale, and person, there is always room for improvement. What do you want to change? What, who, where, when, or how do you wish you were…?

week

15

year

3

Enough Is Enough

Pushed far enough, everyone will eventually push back. Where lies the line between taking it, rolling with it, or sucking it up, and snapping, pushing back, or giving as good is different with each person, in each situation. Eventually, though, even the meekest of us can be pushed so far that she has no recourse but to push back.

I don’t mean the first time you gentley say no to yet another project being piled on you at work. The kind of push back I’m talking about is when you storm into your boss’s office and start laying down demands backed by a firm ultimatim. It’s the kind fed by constant frustration, a little at a time, until one day you find yourself standing on the wrong side of a line you didn’t even know you’d drawn in the sand.

When have you been in a situation where you’ve said to yourself, “enough is enough!” What caused you to break character, your breast suddenly hardening into unstoppable resolve? What person, group of people, or situation pushed and pushed and pushed you until you dug your heels deep and shoved back?

When was enough, enough?

week

14

year

3

Recent Scare

In the last two years, what was the scariest moment you recall? It’s a simple question, loaded with implications. I won’t contaminate the results by providing examples. Be as honest as your conscience (and readership) warrants.

Aside: I would like to thank those who participated in last week’s Saturday Slant, entitled “A Different Kind of Question.” Hundreds of people read that particular post (I look at my server logs), and three people gave their Slants. I thank and appreciate those who had the courage to face a difficult and serious question head-on.

week

13

year

3

A Different Kind of Question

I nearly didn’t post a Saturday Slant this week. I wasn’t feeling much like coming up with a whimsical diversionary query.

The Saturday Slant began as a means of exploring deeper thought and genuine emotion. The concept was that I would pose a provocative or meaningful question or statement, that other bloggers might choose to give their thoughts and opinions upon—colloquially, giving their slant on a topic. More people responded to the lighter, less intense questions about pet peeves, first kisses, and alignment with faery tale characters.

These are all great questions, they have received wonderful response the last two-plus years, and they are fun to write and, more so, to read the responses to. I’m not complaining.

This is the nature of the blogosphere. Most blogs are written for fun; they are the modern equivolant of chatting on a small town back porch in the summer. Most meme questions, from the Saturday Slant or anything else on the Memes List, are as ephemeral as yesterday’s lunch. They are a nightclub’s house band, their names and playlist forgotten even before the house lights come up. This is their purpose, memes, to be quick, easy to answer questions that entail light, fun thoughts. Memes are not bad or wrong or useless because of this; they are created, week after week, for this specific purpose, and they serve that purpose well.

I, for one, enjoy posing the questions about pet peeves, first kisses, and faery tale characters. More so I enjoy reading your responses, learning about your pet peeves, your blushing recollections, and fantastical thoughts.

Today, however, is different. Today is the day after a man died.

To some, he was the most important man in the world; to others, merely the world’s most politically powerful man. His passing, in and of itself, affects me no more than would the passing of my neighbor—which is more deeply than it should, but this is not about me. Though Pope John Paul II was not my personal conduit to higher powers, he was a man whose office and personage I greatly respect. He was a great man, who did many good things for his fellows. He was a man who did not, in some areas, do as much as he should have. At the moment, his record of service in the world’s highest office does not concern me.

I weep for the pain his passing has caused my fellow souls. The Pontiff held tremendous power in his ability to sway roughly 80% of the earth’s population, and he was, for the majority of the planet’s people, the voice of God. This is all impersonal and nigh trivial because these are the robes of the office he attained. John Paul II’s greatest power, his most enduring tribute, is the love he earned in the hearts of millions of my fellow human beings. It is that love that now causes their hearts to ache, and it is for this great ache I weep.

Today’s Saturday Slant is a momentary return to the original intent of this meme, this question of opinions, ethics, and feelings.

What does the passing of Pope John Paul II mean to you?

I don’t expect many—if any—responses, because this is not a question that one easily forgets. Long after my name and the location of where this question was raised has slipped from your mind, you will remember the question and its answer. It is not a nightclub house band. And questions of this sort are not often addressed on personal blogs.

What does the passing of Pope John Paul II mean to you?