If you could choose to meet and get to know any fictional character from all of literature, is there one that appeals to you most?
Share why if you wish.
Month: November 2021
Where Are You From?
The question ‘Where are you from?’ might seem pretty simple. After all, everyone knows where they are from, right?
However, the real trick to this question is how you define the word ‘from’. It can mean many things, and how you choose to define it will influence your answer to the question. It also may reveal something about you.
One way to interpret this is to think about where you were born. But even that has some ambiguity. For instance, you might answer with the country you were born in. Or the state, or the city. Or even the hospital.
Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss the related question: ‘What makes you you?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What gives a person value?’
Of course, where you are ‘from’ might not have anything to do with where you were born. It might mean where you lived the longest. Or where you spent your formative years. It could even mean where you live right now.
It might be the case that the person asking the question can further refine the question. They may be trying to get a specific piece of information, like country of your citizenship.
However, in the absence of any such clues, this becomes a question that is really about identity. How do you identify yourself? With whom do you align yourself? Perhaps you consider yourself an inhabitant of a particular region, like the Midwest or the Northeast. Maybe you are from Seattle or Atlanta, or some other metro area. Or your nationality is your defining point of origin.
However you choose to answer, what do you have in common with the other people who hail from the same place as you? How are you like the others in your town, your state, your country?
Where are you from?
Related questions: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Why do you live where you live? How would you define yourself in ten words or less?
Thanksgiving Or Christmas?
Thanksgiving and Christmas, being about a month apart, are temporally related. However, they are celebrated in drastically different ways. Do you like one holiday more than the other?
Share why if you wish.
Thanksgiving Or Christmas?
What Do You Do With A Day Off Work?
When you get a unusual day off from work, how do you spend it? Do you get chores done? Or maybe spend the day relaxing? Or exploring your hobbies?
Share why if you wish.
How Has The Pandemic Made You Grateful?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been consequential to say the least. In addition to a staggering death toll, it has brought disruption to all of us. And yet, that very disruption offers the opportunity to reflect on our everyday lives.
As Thanksgiving approaches in the U.S., are there things that you are grateful for due to the pandemic?
There are many possibilities. In-person Thanksgiving gatherings were discouraged last year, so the simple fact of seeing family for the holiday may take on a new-found appreciation.
If you have not had COVID, you may be thankful for your health; if you have had it, you may be thankful to have survived.
You may be grateful for the vaccine and the scientists who produced it so quickly, which has allowed safer in-person celebrations this year.
Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss the related question: ‘How do you show thanks?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What book has had the biggest impact on you?’
Health care workers have been under remarkable stresses over the last year and a half, and continue to be even now. Giving thanks to them would not be unreasonable.
Nor would it be unreasonable to be grateful for the teachers, who between quickly adopting to teaching remotely to dealing with rapidly changing safety protocols and helping sometimes traumatized children and teens.
Other essential workers, including the people who grow, pick, ship, and sell the food we consume on Thanksgiving day deserve appreciation.
Will any of these groups get a special nod from you on Thursday? What other groups have been left out? Other than people, what else merits attention?
On this Thanksgiving, are there any new things you are grateful for, that have come about or been highlighted due to the pandemic?
Related questions: What are you grateful for? How are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving this year? Are there unexpected benefits to what we are going through? What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?