Wishing and hoping and dreaming...

Our parents often have one plan for our futures while we have another. Aurora, from Switzerland, wonders

How can we balance our parents' wishes and our desires for the future?

I persist in the hope that if we are happy and healthy and doing what we love, that everyone should be fine. Maybe a little naive...

Art, Great Gams, and a Poser of a Question!

Pippa, from Australia asks

Why did the pike take a hike?

And the question was on this artistic card from a project in Australia that solicits artwork for distribution on its postcards.

Pippa is the Post Crosser; Clarissa Bones is the photographer; AvantCard.com.au is the project.

And I have no idea why the pike took a hike!

I always wanted to direct!

Adriana and Morius, from Romania, asked this cinematographic question:

If your life were a motion picture, what would the title be?

I will have to work on the title, but the more pressing question is... which fabulous, talented, beautiful actress could rise to the challenge of portraying me?

Smile! Say Cheese!

Becky, from New Zealand, paired the question to the card and asked:

If you could photograph any scene in the world, what would it be?

Simple: a photo of me, smiling, holding a winning lottery ticket!

Enough is enough, already

Patie, from Poland asks...

Do you think that two adult women who are very in love can fight for their love with the rest of the world?

World - stop fighting. It's none of your business anyway.

Crank 'er up!

Jennifer wonders...

If tomorrow we lost the ability to generate electricity, what would you miss the most?

She says music although she also points out that we could handcrank our phonographs. (Not sure precisely how we might hand crank our CD players, or for that matter, our Ipods... teeny tiny little cranks, I suppose!)

Bonus Card!

For my last Post Crossing project, as some may know, I listed 50 items in "scavenger hunt" fashion. I received MOST of the items. One item was "carnival;" another was "circus." Jennifer, to whom I sent a card in December of 2009, found the card you see here, and I just received it. I love cards like this! It's a vignette of a life I could only barely imagine.

It's actually a picture of a real person, Koo-Koo the Bird Woman. She was a performer in a sideshow, at the time when people with unusual physical features found one way to make something of a living - as a "freak."

When I googled her name, I found many images sprinkled about the WWW, along with an interesting biographical sketch on the "Phreeque" website. I'm posting the link, along with the advisory that some of the images on this site are disturbing:

www.phreeque.com/koo-koo.html

Smiles all around!

Yana, from Bulgaria, sent me this cool card in the shape of... BULGARIA!

And she wonders:

What makes you smile?

Easy answer: shaped postcards! I think they are fun.

p.s. I'm posting twice today because I missed yesterday and I do not - DO NOT - want to fall behind again!

Seriously? No so!

Great card and great question from Finland!

What are three things that you would still like to learn?

The writer mentioned that, in reference to the card, learning to laugh at herself more is one of hers!

Me, too. And to take things a little less seriously. And to be bolder!

It's taken MONTHS to get to the BARD!

I expected this question MUCH sooner! With love, from Canada:

To be or not to be... that is the question...

whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them? to die, to sleep...

Oh, definitely BE! By all means, BE, take up arms, oppose, and sometimes suffer because all of that is to LIVE.

Handsome card, too!

Flamethrowing? Flame-eating?

From Puerto Rico (where I've visited twice and love three times over!) comes a) a hot FIRE-EATER and b) a cool question!

In last year's scavenger hunt, I listed "Fire Eater" as one of my desires, and at last I have one - and a very slick one it is.

The sender also posed a good question:

What super power would you like to have?

That question, in fact, was the inspiration for this whole blog! Someone else asked that in the Post Crossing Profile, and I decided I wanted to know more questions. So, maybe the super power that I want is the power to generate conversation!

Yesterday, Today, or Tomorrow?

Helen, who sent these lovely flowers from Greece, asks:

If you had the chance to live in another time/era, what would you choose?

I speculated that I'd go for a completely different place and time, something like ancient Egypt. On the other hand, the future might be nice too...

If wishes were fishes

I'd be hip deep in herring! Many PostCrossers want to know about wishes, like Isebelle:

If you could realize one simple wish, what would it be?

My wish is always the same: peace. It's not such a simple wish, however; and that's what she asked for. A simpler wish: for the number of socks going into the laundry to equal the number of socks coming out of the laundry.

An even tougher question, but in a whole 'nother way

Carol wonders:

Why doesn't the superglue stick to the inside of the tube?

Until I received this card, I never thought about this. Now I can't STOP thinking about this.

Another one of those tough ones...

Nancy from Spain poses this:

Is stealing to feed a starving child wrong?

Too many variables!

Unanswerable question?

From the Bahamas:

Would you rather be blind or deaf?

First of all, the question assumes I am not... blind or deaf or both.

Second, as a fully sighted, hearing individual, I can't really imagine those alternate states.

Third, BEING blind or BEING deaf are very different situations than BECOMING blind or BECOMING DEAF.

In the end, I am sure I cannot choose.

Great thought-provoking question, though.

Too much of a good thing?

From Budapest...

Why do all nations think that they are the most important nation?

Misplaced patriotism? Ego? I wonder if we had a little less of this if we'd have a little more of this: peace.

Some to have a little fun with...

From Washington, on the other side of the continent from me, comes these language-based "imponderables," as the writer calls them:

Why do we PARK in a DRIVEway and DRIVE on the PARKway?

and

Why is something sent by TRUCK a SHIPMENT while a SHIP carries CARgo?

Scratching my brain...

Um... Seventeen. Uh... Thirty-nine? Somedays, 102.

Chris from Poland wonders:

How old you would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

Time is a weird thing. Sometimes, I feel hardly old at all; other days... well I DID write 102 in the title!

Another thing about this card and time that's weird is that it was sent to me 269 days ago (on Auguest 16, 2010)! And yet, it responds to my PostCrossing Profile TPQ challenge, which I posted on my birthday last year (September 10). Somehow, nearly a month before I even conceived of the idea, Chris was able to formulate a question to send. Tricky business, this time thing.

Career Advice?

Prixilla from Brazil ponders a question I still ponder, at a point much older than she is:

I just started in college and I am dedicating a year only to studying but it is not in the course of my dreams. I want to be a fashion designer but I didn't pass. Should I keep trying or try to like the course I'm in?

I'm tempted to trot out my "wise old woman" costume and dispense sage advice - something having to do with "following your dream" or something having to do with "making a living." Truth is, at the age of "just started in college," she's got lots of time to do both!

In my own little corner.. in my own little world

Tomek, in Poland, wonders what Americans are up to these days:

There's a common opinion in Europe about Americans that they know nothing about the world and are only interested in their own backyard. Is it true?

Of course, there are vast numbers of Americans who are true citizens of the world, but I'd have to say that the opinion is rooted in reality. It comes, in part, from the fact that our "backyard" is so vast that we lose sight of the rest of the planet. Perhaps as the planet "shrinks," this phenomenon will cease to be true.

Not so much, no...

From Hong Kong comes this earnest inquiry:

Do primary and secondary school teachers enjoy high social status in the USA?

Wouldn't it be lovely if they did?

Just pondering this question made me remember several of my teachers. Thanks, Miss Henion, Mrs Short, and particularly Miss DeFreese for "not catching" me reading my story books when I should have been reading my text books!

La-la-la-la-la-la-LA!!!!!

Ina sends Mabuhay! from the Phillipines and wonders:

If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?

I think I've said before that I would love to be able to sing. Really sing. Out loud. In public. Where other people can actually hear me.

Travelers' Advisory!

Cheri, from New Zealand wonders:

What is the likelihood that we'll have hovercrafts in the future?

Yikes! Just think about all those people who are driving while texting, checking email, applying makeup, shaving, reading the paper, eating three-course meals! What would happen to us if they were behind the controls of hovercrafts?

A REALLY BIG question...

HOW DO I CATCH UP?

Yikes! Between my own busy/craziness, and the post crossing outage, I find myself behind in posting.

So, I decided to post all the TPQs I had to Post Crossing, and then to start fresh with the current crop of cards! So, here, restarting the project is a question from Lisa in Great Britain:

Do you think we are alone in the universe?

As I've said before (at least I think I said it before): I HOPE NOT. The universe would turn out to be an awfully boring place if it was just filled with Earth creatures!