Apparently Substack has something called the Sunshine Blogger Awards, wherein writers are tagged to answer eleven questions of the tagger's choosing. Although I haven't been tagged, reading a few such posts set me to thinking, so here are eleven questions to ponder, along with my own answers.
Q: If could live for a few hundred years, what other culture or cultures would you immerse yourself in, and why?
A: I'd be curious to to learn Japanese, read and write haiku in their language of origin, study Japanese calligraphy, master the biwa or the koto, become a Zen monk for a while, wander the Japanese islands, and immerse myself in Japanese society. It's a truism that Japanese culture is very different from other world cultures, and I would try to understand why from as close to the inside as I could get.
Q: If you could travel back in time to solve a certain historical mystery or prevent a certain historical event, which would it be, and why?
A: I'd travel to Elizabethan England and sleuth around to determine if someone other than William Shaksper of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works of William Shake-speare. Francis Bacon? Edward de Vere? Whodunit?? This topic intrigues me because knowing more about the author would help us better understand the amazing plays and poems published under his name. Whether it was the man from Stratford or someone else, I'd want to get to know him (or her??).
Q: If you could bring a past thinker, writer, scientist, or artist into the present to study with, who would it be, and why?
A: That'd have to be Aristotle. Not only do I have lots of questions for him about soulcraft and philosophy, but I'd love to see how he would adjust his theories to address the evidence of modern science and society. So many people say that Aristotle singlehandedly held back the progress of science for 1500 years, but I believe that the person who founded the sciences of logic and biology would be more open-minded and excited to learn about the modern world. Perhaps I could even smuggle back a lost treatise or two...
Q: What sacred or special place could inspire you to complete an old-fashioned pilgrimage, and why?
A: Athens, the center of ancient Greek literature, culture, and philosophy. Even granted that it has changed tremendously over the last 2500 years, it would still be worth a walk of a few hundred miles.
Q: What long journey (by car, train, foot, boat, etc.) most intrigues you, and why?
A: Hiking the Appalachian Trail. It's true that I'm not tremendously fond of camping, but I could get over that in order to experience the magic of the long walk from Georgia to my home state of Maine (or should I take the SOBO route from Maine to Georgia??).
Q: What art form (music, painting, poetry, etc.) do you find most personally meaningful, and why?
A: Music. It's not easy to explain why one is attracted to particular art-forms, but music has always given me solace and inspiration, both as a listener and as a player. There is something simultaneously visceral and ethereal about music: it goes straight to the heart and nourishes the soul. As Nietzsche once said, "Without music, life would be a mistake."
Q: What single work of art is most personally meaningful to you, and why?
A: Bach's Cello Suites. These suites take the listener on an incredible journey and express a fathomless range of human emotions with just the single voice of the most beautiful instrument known to man. I never tire of listening to the Cello Suites, and as a musician I would find them worthy of endless study and contemplation.
Q: Which book or books do you find so fascinating that you could re-read them once a year, and why?
A: My four nominees are the Essays of Michel Montaigne, the Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thoreau's Walden, and the Tao Te Ching. These are all intellectually stimulating and beautifully, even poetically, written, containing worlds within worlds.
Q: If you could change one thing about human nature or society, what would it be, and why?
A: The human propensity to violence. In one sense I suppose that humans wouldn't have made it to the top of the evolutionary heap without some violent tendencies, but I wish we could tone it down without losing our competitive edge. So much misery results from man's inhumanity to man.
Q: If you had to adopt a religion or worldview other than your own, which would it be, and why?
A: I'd probably give several a try (Judaism, Gnosticism, Taoism, etc.) but settle on a kind of non-doctrinaire Buddhism because of its appreciation for the ambiguities and evanescent beauties of life.
Q: What does your ideal day look and feel like?
A: A long walk in the morning; a few hours for playing guitar and composing; cooking up some homemade food; stimulating conversation with my sweetie or a dear friend; listening to good music; sitting by a warm fire; reading deeply from a few great books; that sort of thing. In sum, the kind of day that my Dutch ancestors would call gezellig.
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)