April 28, 2008
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Writer’s Choice Featured Questions Week 2
five questions for this week
(unfeatured questions stolen from the featured question chatboard, dated from August of 2007)A. Would you rather be rich or poor? Why?
neogirl_426B. Some people meditate while running, others have inspirational thoughts while painting. When do you have the most thoughts, and what do you usually think about?
cral7616
C. Would you rather obey the modern status quo, or would you rather disobey and do what you want to do in life? In other words – follow the herd or stand out and be free?
L_O_R_D_X101D. What is the meaning of life in your eyes?
aLDRiNuNTiLTHeENdOfTiMEE. If this is truly the land of the free, would you fight to defend someone else’s beliefs even if you didn’t agree with them?
JRJustAnswer any one or all of these questions in the coming week.
April 28th
Six days of government sanctioned debauchery began today with the Roman festival of Floralia. Originally a feast motivated by the condition of crops and flowers, it is thought to have been created by command of the Sibylline oracle in 238 BCE. Games were instituted in honour of Flora at that time, but were soon discontinued. They were restored in 173 BCE by the consuls L Postumius Albinus and M Popilius Laenas after storms had destroyed the crops and vines.
Flora, originally a Sabine goddess of spring, flowers, and youth, was offered prayers for the ripe fruits of fields and trees. Her husband is Zephyrus, the west wind, and she is the twin sister of Faunus, the god of wild creatures. In later times, she was identified with the Greek goddess Chloris. A temple was built for her at the Circus Maxima between the Aventine and the Palatine hills, and there was a shrine at the Quirinal where stalks of grain were offered.
Men decorated themselves, their animals, and the city with flowers, especially roses. Women put aside their usual clothes and wore festive dresses. The scene was one of unrestrained merriment. Beans and other seeds were planted, representing fecundity. Offerings of milk and honey were made on this day and the surrounding five days, which comprise the Florifertum. Goats and hares were let loose as they represented fertility. Gift-giving for the season included small vegetables as tokens of sex and fertility.
The first five days of the games were theatrical performances. Day and night there were games (ludi Florales), pantomimes, theater and stripteases with people of all classes in their brightest clothes. The courtesans and prostitutes of Rome regarded the day as their own, performing naked in the theater and possibly fought in the gladiatorial arena.
When Augustus became Pontifex Maximus, he built a chapel to Vesta in his own house on the Palatine, and dedicated it on this day, which was made a public holiday.
Comments (6)
you should make a blogring for the non-featured questions. i think you would get a lot of takers on that.
To meditate while I am exercising is not always easy, but it is always, without fail, rewarding.
Good pics.
The meaning of my life, though it sounds pretty darn quaint, is Love. It doesn’t have to be the sappy kind. Love for humanity, for creation. Refusing apathy. Demanding compassion of myself.
who would rather be poor? seriously?!
but if being rich entailed losing all that I love then I would rather be poor
Your featured questions.
A. Irrelevant.
B. /chuckle .. That’s an odd question. But personally irrelevant, as my flow of thought doesn’t depend upon what I’m doing.
C. Either way, you’re doing “what you want to do” in life. Some people like their gerbil wheel, some people like to hop off.
D. I don’t know what the meaning of life is. I have a clue and a half about what it might be, but seriously, I can only theorize; I’d need about a million clues to actually know.
E. This question is a little bit special, and odd, and here’s why.
The nature of human belief is such that it colors your entire world. You can’t help believing something, otherwise you have absolutely no foundation on which to base the rest of your thoughts and actions. Robotic belief is the same, except it’s not organic; it’s programmed, and although on an advanced level it might be able to grow and live, it’s still programmed with some basic principles and rules to follow.
Now, you can alter and shape other humans’ beliefs with the right tools. Once you yourself realize this, it’s easy enough to see ways your own belief might have been altered in the past and, perhaps, reverse or change what beliefs you perceive are false or meaningless.
Hence, there is a certain freedom inherent in the very act of conscious belief. People will always believe what they want to, regardless of their “right” to believe it or not. Whether or not they can profess this belief without direct harm to others, I think, is more the issue in question, and it doesn’t make sense to die for the stupidity of trying to curtail this right in the first place.
oh, yeah, I forgot. I have a few questions somewhere in the archives of that chatboard, lol..doubt they’d ever feature me.
@NightlyDreams - That’s a very good idea… and I just might have to do this.
@BoureeMusique - I like the feeling of disconnecting from my body while it does its thing and I do mine. I guess this is the state that avid exercise enthusiasts call “the zone.” heh
@CrazyXBeautifulXDisaster - Me too. S’why I chose this question to answer this week, to explain why richer is not necessarily better.
@Lord_Wu - I think question E. is more about whether you’d be willing defend another person’s right to believe something contrary to what you believe. Just assume for the sake of the argument that it’s not a physically dangerous belief for anyone to have. What if (for instance) you were a devout Christian who felt anyone not of your faith would go to hell. Would you still support their right to choose?
I’ll be sure to look for your questions, but I’m going in chronological order from the very oldest available to now. Interestingly enough, so far most of the questions which have been legitimately featured on their site are not to be found in the chatboard…