Tag?

Tag! You’re It!

Taby From “The Closet Intellectual” tagged me in a blogging game of tag. I’ve been feeling a little reluctant to acknowledge that I’m IT. Why? I will tell you. When I played tag as a child, the point (the whole point) was to not get tagged. Because getting tagged meant that suddenly, you were seriously compromised (disgraced? discomfited?). Freeze tag? You can’t move. Frozen in some awkward position, you hope a luckier playmate whose superior evasion skills have kept her warm blooded will run by and thaw you so you can move again. Scratch your nose, sneeze. Just plain tag? You get tagged by “IT” (a monstrous appellation, don’t you think?), and you’re either “OUT”, or you’ve just morphed from a nice, ordinary person to the “IT” monster yourself, like the plot of some freaky Twilight Zone episode or awful alien movie your mom won’t let you watch. So traumatizing.

(Actually, I loved playing tag; I just had a healthy abhorrence for the words, “Tag! You’re IT!!” or “Tag! You’re OUT!!”).

So I’ve been giving myself a little bit of adult self talk here (and, obviously, indulging in a mess of facetiousness, for the sake of conversation).

This game is slightly different. “You’re It” doesn’t mean you’ve just been infected with the rabid “IT Monster” disease, or that you’re frigidly immobile. It’s still playful, but this time, it’s a compliment. It means you have a friend out there in the blogosphere (thank you, Taby). Plus. Once you’re tagged, rather than being frozen or out or on the rampage, you get to talk about yourself. You get to monologue!!! (Monologues are generally reserved for bad guys at the almost end of the movie, but. It’s just symbolic. We’re not monsters here).

And then, you click a few buttons and tag someone else (requiring only the usual levels of oxygen). Rather than run raggedly in the hopes of unloading the burden of IT monster on someone else, your heart gradually sinking as everyone darts away at light speed and laughs heartlessly at your stubby little legs churning uselessly against the tall, dewey grass of your neighbor’s backyard.

Ok.

This particular game of tag asks us to answer five questions. So. Here we go. Lickety split.

Five Things I’m Passionate About?

1) Fair play; inclusion. I think it is so painful…and just plain wrong… when there are “Us” and “Them” divisions. When there’s contempt. I prefer generosity, and at the least, curiosity. The willingness to learn about (to understand) another’s motives, culture, needs, beliefs.

2) My babies. My man. My heart is totally on the line.

3) Gardening. It is metaphorical for me. And literal. It seriously makes me happy. My hands in the earth, soul reaching for the divine.

4) My relationship with God. It is tenuous sometimes. Since I can’t actually see or hear Him, and since life can be truly wanky and seem unjust, it is easy to doubt He exists (or is interested). But over the years, I’ve been consistently comforted and enabled by evidence of His love. Evidence that He’s present, invested, intimately—affectionately—aware.

5) Writing. I love words. I love beauty, art…. picking just five passions? Too hard!

Five Things I Want to do Before I Die?

1) Write something great. Literary. A literary novel, the kind that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Or biographies about my grandmothers that are so good, everyone will beg for movie rights.

2) I want to meet and play with my grandchildren.

3) I want to live in the Northwest again. Or at least, have property there so I can vacation and feel at home. Somewhere near the Paloose Hills, around Walla Walla.

4) I want to learn to dance really well.

5) I want to paint a deep exhale…a painting of women comforting each other. Almost abstract, almost minimalist. Definitely expressive.

Five Things I Say A Lot?

1) “The End”

2) Frank says I say, “Her butt is bulging!” He is speaking of me speaking of our puppy. Sadly, I’ve become an expert puppy butt watcher. Side effect of puppy potty training. You’ve got to get really, really good at predicting potty needs.

3) I enumerate when I’m speaking passionately? “A, the price wasn’t marked! and 2, no one knows where it came from! Plus, we’re all feeling entitled!” For example.

4) Seriously? Seriously???

5) Does anyone know where my phone is?

Five Favorite Movies?

1) Sweet Land. Here’s one of my favorite scenes. (Alex Kingston, Taby…)

2) The Jane Austen suite. Everything from Emma to Mansfield Park. BBC, A& E, Columbia whatever. Whatever whatever. Probably because I love Jane Austen. Trade Austen for Thackeray and throw in both Vanity Fairs. I love them all. I know I’m cheating. But I wanted fair representation.

3) While Sleepless in Seattle isn’t a favorite, I love the scene where Rita Wilson is describing “An Affair To Remember”. After which Tom Hanks and his buddy have to do a “Dirty Dozen” vignette (fair representation again).

4) The Incredibles

5) The most recent Star Treks, The Oceans movies, and RED I & II…however. The minute shooting/punching/death and destruction starts, I’m closing my eyes. Peeking only occasionally. But I love all the characters; the lines/acting are fun for me. And Bruce Willis stepping casually out of a spinning car, shooting…that is just toooo cool. I don’t think he’s a stellar actor, not at all. But he is very charismatic. It’s like he’s sharing this joke with you, individually, in the audience. “We both know I can’t act…but no one else does. Plus I’m super cool, right? Let’s have a little fun with them, shall we?”

(Do you remember when he had hair, in “Moonlighting” with Cybill Sheppard? Pardon the resolution of this clip; it was the 80’s after all)

The Next Tag?

I think I’ll just tag one or two…feeling lazy and slightly lumberish now that my monologue is over.

Um… go see these girls. And have fun! The end!

Love the Lemons

Empowerment Diet

Fever Thrift