capri0mni | "Five Questions" -- from snowgrouse

I'm still swooning over the Epona thing you did for the previous Pro-Fun hoedown.

(That was actually two hoedowns ago, but no matter)

To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure. I've always been really meditative. My father was raised Quaker (or Society of Friends), and although he didn't raise me as Quaker in any formal way, I just naturally took to the Friends' way of worship (silent meditation, and listening to the Light Within) like a duckling to water. I also have a very visual imagination... even my dreams are color coded by theme. So I guess it's just how my mind works... I dunno. If I could borrow another mind, and live with it for a while, I might figure it out through comparison... but you know...

As in which Goddesses' stories speak to you on the deepest level?

Generally, I don't see Goddesses as archtypes, as such. Maybe it goes back that quasi-Quaker upbringing, but I personally find that identifying a diety in a humanoid form, with a name from a specific culture rather distracting. Instead, I identify the deities/Goddesses as the composite mind of all the living things in my environment. When I was eight years old, and first became aware of the Goddess presence in my life, she was Mother Mountain, and I saw Her body in the Hudson Highlands that formed my southwest horizen. Now that I am living in Virginia, I see her in the shadows in the small grouping of trees in my back yard.

That said, I must say that I am drawn to folk and wondertale, more than to formal "myths" proper. And the wondertales that speak to me most deeply are those where the heroine is a solar being, such as the Grimms' tale Frau Holle, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon from Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (Norway). And of course, the Celtic Horse Goddesses, as horses are important spirit partners to me (which is why I was inspired to write that Epona scene).

Yes, that's her. :-) Eloise was born (erm, popped into existance) on Feburay 5, 2000. It was during one of those perennial times in radw when bouts of "You are a pro-___ troll!" seemed to show up in every other thread. In one thread, there was a discussion of how Doctor Who monsters aren't really all that scary, and I made the following comment (just found this through Google -- ah -- the memories!):

Hear, hear! I'd much rather have an engaging, fully-fledged story with cardboard props than a cardboard story and million-dollar props!

to which another poster replied:

A Doctor Who fan!
Wow!!
What are you doing here??

Me again: Having a great deal of fun, if you must know...

to which a friend of mine replied: You are a pro-fun Troll, and are now in my killfile.
Shocking what some people will admit to on this ng

In that instant, the image of a pro-fun troll popped into my head, pot belly, long nose and all, only instead of living under a bridge, she lived under my computer desk, and was so small she had to sit on my lap to type her messages. The next day, I dismissed her existance as make-believe, but she wouldn't go away, and she's grown and developed a biography of her own over the years (she is now grown to the height that the top of her head is even with my shoulder when she stands beside me as I type ;-)).

By March 12 of that year this Pro-fun troll and I decided that something had to be done about the nasty trolling and flame wars on RADW, and together, we posted the "Pro-fun Troll Manifesto" (or What it means to be a Pro-Fun Troll) and launched the first round of "Pro-fun Troll Games." In May of that year we hosted the first pro-fun troll Hoedown; the troll acquired her name Eloise (and the first bit of her dark, biographical past, and her troll friends Walter and Ruthie) during the second Hoedown. The Weekly stats are no more, and, sadly, the pro-fun threads are all gone, too... but we are currently in the midst of the fourth round robin, and that universe is rapidly spawning its own continuity... which frightens me a little ;-)

I remember you posting something beautiful on the subject on radw ages ago, but would love to hear it again :).

Yes... that was either the first post I delurked with, or one of the first. I could go Googling for it, but I think I need to rephrase it for myself:

The Doctor is a wonderful character. He is not full of bravado, or obvious run-of-the-mill charisma. He does not solve problems or be the hero by force. He is a hero by virtue of his wit and humor, his demands for justice, and generous heart.

But what is most wonderful about him is that he is not real. If he were real, there would be only one of him. But he is fiction, and so he is and has been created by hudreds of people -- from professional writers and actors working for the bbc to all the fans who create their own interpretations. All those hundreds of people are real, and each one of them values, and aspires to be, the kind of hero they imagine the Doctor to be. And each one of them has the oportunity to work in the world and change it for the better.

And that gives me hope.

(was that close to what you remembered?) ;-)

Silly take: "Gee, I've got this fully barrier-free, wheelchair accessible full-sized tour bus -- the kind rock stars use. And I have absolutely no use for it. Would you like it?"

Serious take: (A question I have actually been asking myself, recently): "What is your Geas [i.e. personal responsibility you bear, and destiny for your life]?" I'm slowly coming to the realization that it is to bring people together, somehow, through storytelling. To use the craft of storytelling as a kind of transformative magick for healing individuals and society... or to at least try. Which is why, despite all their surface silliness, the pro-fun round robins are so important to me, and why it hurts so much when they don't raise the kind of healing energy I hope for...

Or am I just laying the profundity on just a little to thickly? ;-)