christyotwisty's 5 questions for June of 2023, answered by me...

1. Describe the most expensive object you'd like to buy.

   Does 20 - 100 Acres of land in a good location count as
   an object? If so: that. Otherwise, meh- I have what I
   need. If something breaks I'll buy a replacement.

2. What is something the generation preceding you loves that
   you don't understand?

   Viewing accumulation of goods as a form of success. That may
   not be true of all in the preceding generation... but is
   absolutely true of the members of said generation I interact
   with the most.

3. What is something the generation succeeding you loves that you
   don't understand?

   I'm not sure. I don't really know anyone that falls into that
   age group really. I suppose: being on a smartphone or tablet
   or the like when hanging out with people in person. I'm not
   sure if that is still a thing (or if young people hanging out
   in person is a thing), but the people I know on the younger
   edge of my generation started doing that a lot and I just did
   not get it and often would leave a place if everyone was just
   on their phones.

4. What holiday in your calendar needs to be replaced, and with
   what other observation or commemoration?

   To be honest I do not really do much *specific* holiday stuff.
   I love getting together for a meal with family. But I do not
   care at all about dressing up in costumes, giving or receiving
   gifts (I outright do not want to receive anything other than
   food and company), painting eggs, etc. I do have a small child
   and so we do some of that, but all holidays are replaceable
   with anything else for me. I am adamantly non-religious (I 100%
   do not believe in any conception of "god" that any religion
   that I know of offers) and I am very much not patriotic (I do
   not think we have things better where I am or that we as a nation
   hold any moral high ground or anything of the sort and would
   just as soon live somewhere else... inertia keeps me here I
   suppose. I dont have a great desire to leave, but dont have
   a great desire to stay either. My family is here so I am here.
   Anyway, I have digressed. Most holidays revolve around either
   religion or the religion of state... since I do not care for
   either, holidays have no real ceremonial value to me. It is just
   a day that I get to spend with family. As such they are all fine.

5. What do you think it means to be redeemed? Have you felt redeemed
   at one time? Can one be redeemed an iota without the drama of a
   constructed fiction narrative?

   So, I looked it up to make sure I was using the word correctly. The
   dictionary gives a varied and sweeping definition with many forms.
   The definitions that seem to fit here are:

   - to atone for
   - to change for the better
   - to release from blame or debt
   - to free from the consequences of sin

   There were many more, but these seem the most in line with the query.
   I do not believe in the concept of sin, so that one is just fairyland
   nonsense to me, so I will ignore it for this question.

   I think to be redeemed would mean to have made effort to make ammends
   for a wrongdoing (an external action), to change yourself for the
   better (an internal action), and to be recognized as having done such
   by a wronged party (an action external to the self entirely).

   I'm not sure that I have felt redeemed in that way. I feel that I have
   done the two things that I can in the above paragraph and that a valid
   third party has recognized that action. According to the above, that
   should count... but I feel like I carried things with me anyway. Which
   brings me around to the idea that redemption is something you give
   yourself and that you cannot truly be redeemed by an outside authority.

   To the final part: yes. But again, I believe it to be an internal state
   and thus may or may not lend itself well to certain types of fiction.
   Furthermore, I do not think that most constructed fiction naratives do
   not ascribe to my view in full and mostly just go through the motions
   of apology.