State of the Union survey results (cont’d)

In the survey I posted before leaving for Spain, I posted the numerical results but none of the commentary that appeared – here is the commentary:

5. What has been the best remedy for getting over loss and pain?

46.4% Time
17.9% Friends
14.3% Family
3.6% Art
0 Travel

Need to explain:

Combo: friends, physical activity, travel/new perspective; and some losses are not really surmountable – losing a parent at a very young age. It’s always a loss though there some compensations; losing a parent (father) before I knew him has not been like losing a lover or sibling or a job. And sometimes the best remedy for a lost love really is a new love. I’ve learned that more than once. 🙂 like any other loss for me.

Staying as busy as possible

Again, all of the above. But, you did ask for best. I’d say Friends

Time, friends, and family

all of the above with special emphasis on time

6. What is the most moving book you have ever read, most inspiring film, or any work of art that transformed you – be it from your childhood through the passage into adulthood, to now?

So many! books, film and art. hard to choose just one! Barbara Kingsolver’s A PRODIGAL SUMMER got me thinking about the terrible things people are doing to the earth.

Samurai’s Garden

Tree of Life

Harold and Maude

A Course in Miracles

Richard Ford’s story collection “Rock Springs”

Moving book: To KIll A Mockingbird and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; hmm both with birds in title; film – probably “The Sound of Music” my grandmother drove me to Memphis about 7 times to see this film when it came out. Take away lesson: there is a song for every occasion.; Work of art: paintings of women by Picasso, I learned that women are powerful. At first, I didn’t like them because I thought Picasso was a misogynist. Then I realized that he was expressing the poweful emotions evoked b y all the amazing women in his life – his mother, numerous lovers/wives, his daughter. He was figuring out their roles/influences on his life, that was expressed as his art which was so close to the persona/character

Pyewacket – children’s book

name of the rose.

Goodnight Moon, Encounters @ the End of the World, The Grotto of the Loue by Corot

The Moviegoer

Charlotte’s Web

Lovely Bones

Hummmm

Lean on Pete

that’s a hard question! The possible answers are all revolving around a theme of works that made me think differently. Not that they were necessarily works of high art, but that afterward the world looked different: A Wrinkle in Time, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Maus, Pulp Fiction

House Music circa 1989..changed my life forever…for the best…

hard to say – so many great works out there

book – how proust can change your life

Dostoyevski

Way too hard. Loved Grapes of Wrath and Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa at the Louvre.

La Strada — Fellini’s movie; To the Lighthouse — Virginia Wolfe

couldn’t pick just one

Middlemarch

7. What is the best advice you would give your young self if you could go back in time?

Like one of those inspiring books–“don’t sweat the small stuff!”

save more $

don’t worry about it

face your fears; don’t run away from them

don’t take the easy road, take the most fulfilling

Get married and have children earlier

It gets better. And you are beautiful, smart and powerful; use your gifts to make the world a better place.

Become a lawyer instead….

be true to yourself and dont worry what others think.

look longer & don’t doubt

Have confidence

Know when to say enough

trust that you have wisdom and power

Slow down and enjoy…

Get over your shyness becasue it doesn’t get any easier

Make wiser life decisions..

You are not special. Get over yourself and grab take life by the throat, because it goes on with or without you.

worry less. marry for money.

relax

Don’t take any shit

There’s plenty of time for sex drugs and alcohol but only a short time to be a kid. Enjoy being a kid.

address my ADD in high school or college

Give yourself time and don’t hurry into life.

8. What is the best advice you would give yourself now if you could go forward in time and have hindsight?

It was all about attitude. Always. You can’t change what happens sometimes, but you can change your attitude towards it!

Be more patient

work less, play more, love more

i don’t know

relax

Keep on. You’re in the right place at the right time with the right people. The universe is providing and will continue to provide for you.

Exercise more

spend better time with those you love.

don’t look

Ha ha, probably “have confidence”

Cherish these moments

relish every minute now, do not live for tomorrow

Spend more time with the people you love.

there is still hope to change myself

Choose wisely

Don’t know. I don’t see how I can give my self advice from the future if I don’t know that future or my future self.

worry less – marry for money

relax

Continue to study and learn

There’s plenty of time for sex drugs and alcohol but just a short time to be a kid. Enjoy being a kid!

live mindfully

Enjoy each and every second.

 

 

 

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