Thanks to Cee for this week’s challenge, Share Your World – 2016 Week 49.
What do you value most in a friendship?
Not too long ago I had to break off a close friendship because the other party did not demonstrate one quality that I require in a friend: reciprocity. My philosophy of friendship is that when I’m at the top of the wheel of life and you’re at the bottom, I’ll do whatever I can to help you about. But I also assume that, when that big wheel of life turns, leaving you at the top and me at the bottom, you’ll do likewise for me. My former friend was a taker: I did all the giving and she did all the taking. When I was on the wheel’s downturn, she had neither the time nor the inclination to help me out with a sympathetic ear or a caring pat on the back.
I finally had to break off the friendship because she neither respected nor appreciated me. So I guess those are two more qualities I value in a friend: respect and appreciation. But reciprocity still tops my list, because friendship requires mutual respect and appreciation.
Do you prefer eating the frosting of the cake or the cupcake first? Do you prefer a specific flavor?
I break the cupcake roughly in half horizontally and eat the bottom first. I save the part with the frosting to savor last.
Have you ever been in a submarine? If you haven’t, would you want to?
Yes, I have been in a submarine, but it was not submerged. A few years ago we toured a former WW II submarine on display at one of the piers at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I was glad to see the interior, but I was also very glad to emerge at the other end.
I am slightly claustrophobic, and I also have a primal aversion to anything requiring me to go under water for more than a few seconds. I can put my face into the water to swim, but I’m not going all the way under for anything. For these reasons, being in a submarine under water is my personal vision of hell.
If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?
Not very many. Retirement has been good to me. I love where I live (in the Pacific Northwest, where I can see the mountains and the ocean), and I now have few obligations to do anything I don’t want to do. I love my life.
Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
Yesterday was our daughter’s birthday. All her life we have put off Christmas preparations until after her birthday so that she wouldn’t feel ignored on her special day. Even though she’s now well into adulthood, we still wait to start doing Christmas. Now that we’ve celebrated her birthday, I can begin to get into the Christmas spirit.
So let me expend my best wishes to everyone who observes a holiday at this time of year.
I hope everybody has a great week!
© 2016 by Mary Daniels Brown