The other day Lisa, over at Mappa Mundi, asked a question. She wanted to know what our favorite trait was...our own personal trait, not just a random trait we admired in others or wanted to instill in ourselves.
And you know?...I can't come up with anything.
Am I brave? No...at least, I don't think I've faced anything I've had to be particularly brave about. No, I don't like getting on a plane, but I do it and I don't think it's particularly brave.
Am I kind? Not particularly. At least, not with those random act of kindness things.
Am I generous? No, I'm really rather selfish, I'm afraid. I can be generous with things I don't care about much but if I am generous and give someone something I really wanted to keep I spend a lot of time fretting about it.
Am I smart? Not compared to a lot of people I know.
Am I creative? Less and less so as time goes by, for some reason. I used to be able to sit and write and doodle and lose myself. Now I sit and look at blank pages and have nothing.
Am I funny? I wish I were, but unless I'm sparking off of other funnier people, I'm not. I feel funnier, for example, when I'm hanging out with my brother. Now, he's funny!
Am I responsible? I guess maybe. But I'd hate to have that be my defining trait. "Oh, that Sarah! She's sure responsible!"
Am I honest? Well, maybe for a certain definition of honest.
Am I loyal? To people and things I love, yes. Other people and things? Not so much, I think.
I've read the responses to Lisa's posts...I guess I could say I have a certain amount of equanimity. I can stay fairly calm when others are running around all crazy-like. That's probably aggravating to those running around.
Perhaps my most defining trait is that I'm really lousy at self-awareness!
6 comments:
Well, even if you don't know it, I know that you're a terrific friend and neighbor.
Remember that February night in 2003 when my 89-year-old mother fell down in my house and I called you and Mr. Pointy Sticks at 3:00 AM for help? I was so sleepy that I couldn't think straight. Mr. Pointy Sticks suggested that I call an ambulance and I did. As it turned out, my mother's hip was fractured and she needed surgery.
Oh, and you're also a helluva knitter. ^__^
Brave I can't address, but you're kind in that random way: you sent brownies when I had to put down my cat (and they were yummy!) And you're generous with knittings and books, as I have enjoyed very much. You're smart enough to know that you don't know everything, and, smarter still, you don't beat yourself up over it, which is even better as an emotionally smart thing.
As for all the others, sweetie, you invited a complete stranger into your life on a Friday night, came and fetched me, and spend a delightful evening as tour guide and charming host, and book adviser, and most remarkably, you did all that without ever making me feel like a stranger.
Let me also add, that you have an amazingly talented and creative daughter, and that you recognize and support her in that.
You are a good, good friend, even unto people you don't know. That's who you are.
Aw. Now you're making me feel all goopy.
And I really wasn't fishing for compliments. Really! I just realized that I don't think of myself as very good at anything much.
And Kaethe, you need to come back up to Baltimore sometime!
I don't know you real well, Rooie, but you strike me as someone with such incredibly deep family ties and affection that it makes me a bit envious. I'd love to feel so close to my blood relatives.
That post of mine generated so much conversation! That makes me happy.
Well, you're a great sister. I was so relieved when the 'rents sent Eunice back and we got you instead.
Oh well...I hear Eunice was a real pill.
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