Curious as a Cat

(Link at left)

1) What would it take for you to reconcile with your greatest enemy?

I'm reconciled with most people. That doesn't mean I have to like them, or hang around with them. In fact, sometimes everyone recognizes that it's better not to hang out together.
Actually, the real difficulty here is figuring out who my 'greatest enemy' is--sometimes I think it's myself! :-)

2) What do you anticipate it will feel like to be 20 years older than you are today?

One of the benefits of having very-much-older siblings is that I can answer questions like this fairly easily, within a certain framework of options. If I take after two of my sisters, I probably won't be alive in 20 years. If I take after my brother, I'll still be overweight and dealing with diabetes in the next decade or so, but otherwise fine. And if I take after my 20-years-older-than-me sister, I'll be heading in for knee-replacement surgery but will be hale and healthy otherwise. I'm hoping for the one of the latter two.
In non-health ways, I'd like to still be working and learning. It would be nice to still be able to travel as well. I hope I'm not a stick-in-the-mud. I hope I have grandchildren. I hope I can still smile at babies and stupid human tricks. I hope I'm not widowed.

3) What one thing would you do to revise the current welfare system?

While I'm not draconian about it, I do wish we as a society, could somehow make it less of a permanent dependency thing. Welfare should be there for people who NEED it, but not become a crutch on which lazy, unmotivated people lean for decades or their entire lives. I'd like people not to make value judgments based on the word welfare. However, human nature being what it is...I'm not sure any of this is realistic. I think welfare of any kind works better in small communities, because everyone knows what's going on, versus gigantic bureaucracies where recipients are like rats in a maze (press the button and money comes out from somewhere) and the bureaucrats don't have time to address each individual. They way it stands now is that welfare is a game and everyone plays parts to get more of what there is out there.
Here's an analogy: if you have a fender-bender with a neighbor that you know pretty well, dealing with the damages is based on whether you can work it out face-to-face (and your prior relationship) and what you know (or think you know) of their habits and financial situation. Getting in a fender-bender with someone you don't know makes it easier to call a lawyer and sue for damages, to stretch the facts to fit your sense of entitlement. In the first case, the money comes from someone you're going to see every day, whose kids play with your kids, and who makes you zucchini bread every fall. In the second case, the money comes from Somewhere. There's a lot of money in the mythical land of Somewhere.

4) What is the most unexplainable thing you've ever witnessed?

In terms of prosaic things, childbirth.
In woo-woo spooky terms, hearing my dad's voice say my name out loud several years after he died.

5) Show and Tell. What comes to mind first when you see this picture? Or, tell a story if it reminds you of one.

Sandal tans make me smile. I've got a faint one on my feet from the fairs--nothing anywhere close to these feet!
I also like this picture because it reminds me of summer, which is semi-officially ending today, and with this summer comes the end of any semblance of "childhood" still attached to Sparky. He's really NOT a child anymore, but I wanted him to have this summer as a memory of lazy days spent doing what he wants. Next year, he'll be 15 and could be working in the corn-detasseling industry (hah), learning to drive, dating (ack!), and worrying the CRAP out of me when he's home alone. Not that I thought this all out last winter/spring, but I was pretty insistent that he have this summer to be 'free' one last time. The fact that he spent (much of) it in the basement or the living room watching TV and playing video games...well, ok. I guess I did a lot of that in the summers when I was a kid, too.
Oh, and I like bare feet. If I could never wear shoes or socks again, that would not be a bad thing (as long as I could pick my climate and lifestyle). Having the ability to spread my toes out--like the foot to the left in the picture--is heaven for me.