People Of Our Time

Entry #20 | Submitted: 3 November 2006

Name: Anne Mathewson | Age: 58 | Location: United States

Favourite Actor(s):

David Strathairn, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington

Favourite Actress(es):

Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh, Meryl Streep, Felicity Huffman

Favourite Entertainer(s):

Bob Hope

Favourite Musical Artist(s)/Band(s):

The Knife, Loreena McKennitt, Josh Ritter, The Clerkenwell Kid, The Real Tuesday Weld

Favourite TV Show(s):

Modern Marvels, House, Men in Trees, Band of Brothers,

Five words that best describe me:

Funny, Reclusive, Opinionated, Creative, Generous

My likes:

Lemons, transformative dreams, passion, mushrooms, olives, art, feather boas, toys, tap shoes, fingerpaints, music, sharing,

My dislikes:

Informed unkindness, exercise, blue eyeshadow, skunks, drivel, dishonesty, reality television (as a rule), and anyone who can only feel good about themselves by making others look small or damaging them in some way.

My favourite meal/dessert:

Lobster, with butter and lemon.

My hobbies:

Reading, writing, and collecting odd little things.

My best quality:

Creativity.

My weakest feature:

The occassional tendency to put my mouth into gear before i engage my brain.

Favourite quote, phrase, or motto I live by/associate with in some way:

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.

Who I am most inspired by:

Anyone faced with great adversity who has the courage to get up tomorrow and try again.

Those nearest and dearest to me:

Those who know my faults and accept me in spite of them have always been dear to me. But truly, i am close to no one.

What i'm most fearful of:

Losing my memory. As filmmaker Luis Bunuel once said, "You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all, just as an intelligence without the possibility of expression is not really an intelligence. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing."

My greatest achievement to date:

Any time i make someone else smile.

The root of all happiness?

Happiness is fleeting, a whisper on the wind. The ideas and ideals by which we define it, such as love, friendship, wealth, achievement, good health, are choices which require effort, work, growth and determination but also depend a bit on luck and karma. So perhaps the more realistic approach to a satisfying life, the one thing that makes it all worthwhile, is courage. Courage to try again no matter how much you failed or were hurt. Courage to hope when all hope is gone. Courage to give away not what you can afford, but that which you cannot afford. Courage to do what's right, not what's easy.

If I could change one thing about the World...

That no child would ever grow unnurtured or unloved.

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