Thursday, April 30, 2009

Amber is fortunate to have a wonderful book which records the opinions of her great great grandmother and grandfather and here you can read the fascinating opinions of her great great grandmother.
I decided to have a go at answering the same questions. Some of the questions are quite hard and I would possibly change some answers but this is how I have answered them today -

The noblest aim in life
to live true to one’s convictions

The Greatest wonders of the world
the terracotta warriors, the internet

The characters you most admire in real life
adventurers / mountaineers

Who do you consider the greatest living politician?
Mandela

What political questions are you chiefly interested in?
what is the best form of government

The greatest artists and musicians
Picasso, Van Gogh, Jim Morrison, Simon & Garfunkel

Your favourite characters in fiction.
Sherlock Holmes

The time of year you like best
autumn

The authors you admire most
Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky

A Brief Definition of love
enduring passion

The scenery you admire most
cliffs and the sea

Your idea of happiness
playing with my son, travelling the world, writing a good poem

Your favourite motto or proverb
know thyself

The wrongs you would redress
rights of asylum seekers

Reforms you would advocate
lowering the voting age

Your favourite recreation or hobby
reading / writing poetry

The true place of woman in society
whatever they want to be

Your favourite topic of study
philosophy

Your chief ambition
to live without regrets

The Christian name you like be
if only I knew then we wouldn’t still be arguing over baby names!

Your ideas on the subject of marriage
The cornerstone of society

The qualities you respect most in men and women?
honesty, determination and passion

Your favourite flowers, birds and beasts
tulips, herons, otters

10 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

I agree with you on loads of these...probably the marriage one the least though!
x

Marion McCready said...

hi rachel, yes I guess it's a bit of an old-fashioned view!

An Honest Man said...

@Rachel Fox - it also would depend on the concept of society that one has. I frequently find myself disagreeing with these types of 'snapshots' because the answers are so depend on the interpretation of what the question actually means and we all, thank goodness, have our own views on that.

Rachel Fox said...

Yes, 'society' is one of those words that we use all the time...but it's quite vague in some ways. 'Marriage' is just as complicated...and with some terrible history!
x

Marion McCready said...

I agree there's a lot of terms here that are wide open to interpretation these days which made some of the questions quite hard to answer.
I think words like society and marriage were more definitely definable as concepts back in amber's great great grandmother's time which makes her answers so interesting from a historical perspective.

Roxana said...

thank you for this captivating insight into your world, sorlil! i so laughed about sherlock holmes, i would have never expected it - but i can understand it, i was once in love with the guy, i must confess this :-)

deemikay said...

Herons and otters. :)

I'd maybe go for a different bird, but herons would be up there.

Marion McCready said...

oh yes, I love sherlock homes :)

hi david, I loved ring of bright water as a kid, and as for herons, aren't they just fantastic birds?!

deemikay said...

Herons *are* great... I love them in flight. (And when I saw one from the train this morning high over Newton I remembered that I hadn't replied to you!)

Marion McCready said...

they're amazing in flight, like leftover from the dinosaur era.