50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind – part VI

I am not really sure how I came up with the idea of answering all 50 of these question but it did make it onto my bucket list. I have answered the first, second, third, fourth and fifth batch of these questions. High time to chip away and answer the next couple ones…

This batch of questions was one of the tougher ones to answer and I am not sure I did a good job. I guess you could re-visit them after a certain time period.

26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?

Oh wow… starting off with a tough one. I tend to live in the past. But I am also a very curious person. So imagining not learning anything new. Not reading new stories. Not traveling and experiencing new places, making new memories is a hard choice. Statistics say I have a bit more of my life ahead of me as of now, though.

But I am who I am because of my memories, my experiences, the people who have been with me. I really don’t want to forget all about them. And the things that shaped me. Compared to many others I have lived a happy and privileged life. My family is stable even though at times annoying. I never had to go through major health crisis within my family or myself. All this said doesn’t mean there haven’t been tough stretches. But overall it’s been a good life so far. So why erase all this?

Luckily I dont have to decide this questions for real because I really don’t want to. But for the sake of this thought experiment I’d say I vote for 51% of not making new memories.

27. Is it possible to know the truth without challenging it first?

Ähhhh what now… that is what my brain is thinking every time I read the questions.

At first I thought: Why would I challenge a truth? Then I thought: Why shouldn’t I challenge the truth? And then I thought: Doesn’t it depend?

I thought about something that is my truth… my faith. I figured something I am not challenging in the fundaments. But then I remembered a time when I was 14 and I did challenge that truth. Very much so as in thinking about converting to Judaism. So I guess in this case I did need to challenge it in order to know my truth.

So is there a thing I wouldn’t challenge?
Love… But don’t we challenge that daily and daily decide it is still the truth…. Otherwise it be obsession or dependency?
Democracy… that might be the one thing that I know to be true without challenging. I mean I could challenge the system and the way it’s been handled but over all I wouldn’t challenge it. But then what happens in a crisis… Is it really smart to vote and discuss. Not sure and definitely don’t want to find out.

This one is hard. I think I will ponder it a bit more off screen.

28. Has your greatest fear ever come true?

Yes and no. I am very scared of loved ones being in a car crashes. My parents have been in numerous crashes. The bad ones never to be blamed on them. But what does that matter… The first happened when I was about 6 years. I was at my aunt and was supposed to be picked up and no one came. It was getting dark and still no one. That was pre-mobile phones. At one point my dad’s best friend a pastor walked up to my aunts. It turned out they hit some black ice and crashed in a tree. Anyway ever since it’s a fear. Another bad one when the brakes of dad’s car were not working and he crashed on the autobahn. A week prior his colleague had a similar fatal accident. It was the time my dad was in politics and to this day we are rather sure the breaks were tempered with just like with his colleagues. There was never an investigation as the car was immediately totaled though its speculation. The major car crash a few years back didn’t really help my anxiety about this. But luckily no one was fatally injured so I guess no.

29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset?  Does it really matter now?

I’ve thought about this questions a few times now. Five years ago it was September 2019. Pre-pandemic. I can not remember anything bad happening. Something that stuck with me. So either nothing has happened or it was not so severe that my brain has catalogued it. So I guess whatever it was if it happened it doesn’t matter now.

30. What is your happiest childhood memory?  What makes it so special?

I am one of the lucky people who have a numerous of happy childhood memories. I honestly can’t pick one. So I have a top three of moments that occurred multiple times.

1. Traveling.
   I loved all the places we traveled. In my early childhood that was limited to a few options and every out of country trip was always up for debate as visas needed to be applied for and they could be canceled within minutes of departure. But once the wall came down my parents travel bug kicked in and we did travel twice a year to new places. I saw half of Europe + Israel by the time I came to the US with 17. I am forever grateful to have that experience.
2. Christmas Time.
   Best time in our household. I have talked about our Advent hour and the Christmas Play we did every year before. And you can read about it in my post of best traditions I grew up with. Baking was also a big part as well as Church. To this day I try to catch every Church service during Advent and Christmas because I love the songs so much. And of course our advent calendars. My mom always made us one. We only had one calendar and it was always a sharing one. So each day had three things to share.
3. Reading & Story Time.
   I loved when my mom read us stories at night. Since my youngest sister is six years younger I could easily tune in until I was a teenager to the stories my mom read aloud to here. Often times we sat in a bed and snuggled up. There is one image of us four girls alls bunched up on a sofa in our cabin in Denmark and mom reading to us.
   During our travels my dad started tellings us stories during hikes. They started to see us motivating and moving but they became core memories and weeks before vacations we asked what kind of story we would hear. He always matched them to the places we traveled.

So much for today. I can not find a sufficient end to these thoughts. But I leave you with a question: Is there one of these questions you could easily answer in one sentences? Is there an answer you would disagree? Or maybe absolutely agree to? What is your favorite childhood memory? Would you give up your memories?

This post is the sixth of the series to answer all 50 questions. A thing on my 100 things in 1000 days bucket list.