Thread of Questions by Aprilise

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Thread of Questions

POSTED BY: APRILISE
UPDATED: Thursday, January 11, 2007 06:31
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Friday, January 5, 2007 8:19 PM

All questions that appear in this thread (and if i continue it other threads) come from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock

So I found a copy of this book and thought it'd be interesting to see how people respond to the questions.

There is only 1 rule and it's simple common sense but still Please respect others opinions even if you disagree.

We'll start with this one.

#4 If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do so? If not, why not?

April

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Friday, January 5, 2007 8:55 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Sure I would. I mean, I'd prefer to be able to remember, but it's still a year of perfect happiness. Happiness is too precious to say no to, I think. Now if you had said "Would you want a year of perfect happiness if for the rest of your life you would be miserable?" I would say no.

[]

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Friday, January 5, 2007 8:59 PM

KAYLEEGIRL

I wouldn't. What would be the point? If I didn't remember any of it, it would not exist for me. And if other people kept telling me it was such a shame that I didn't remember how happy I'd been -- well, wouldn't that just be the most frustrating and depressing thing!

Of course, the notion of a perfect anything doesn't make sense to me because of my leanings toward Taoism. I believe the wheel keeps turning and to have balance there must be a little bad in the good and a little good in the bad. That's as close to perfection as we can get.

(By the way, cool thread!)

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Saturday, January 6, 2007 5:57 AM

NAVYSEILS

I definetly would, I could use a year of bliss. Even if I forget it all, the relief would probably be worth it while it lasts. I'm not going to remember it if I do it or not, so I might as well take advantage of the offer.

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Saturday, January 6, 2007 6:00 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

#4 If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do so? If not, why not?

I think that's called 'college', only it lasted for 4 years, not just one.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Saturday, January 6, 2007 10:49 AM

ASORTAFAIRYTALE

I would too. So what if you can't remember it later? You'd still get to be happy for a while, and it would be good not to be worried and unhappy for a whole year. Also, you often forget things in time anyway, this would just be forgetting faster.

---------
Love keeps her in the air when she outta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.

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Saturday, January 6, 2007 1:38 PM

CAUSAL

Quote:
Originally posted by Aprilise:
#4 If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do so? If not, why not?

No way, Jose. Because who we are is the aggregate of where we've been and the lessons we've learned from what we've experienced. If I have to data dump an entire year, happy or not, I'm sacrificing one heck of a lot of life. A whole year! Eesh, it creeps me out just thinkin' about it.

On an unrelated note, this is fun! Let's do more!

________________________________________________________________________
Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets

I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

Vote Firefly! http://www.richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html

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Saturday, January 6, 2007 10:05 PM

APRILISE

I would take the year of happiness. After all, no one ever knows what the future will hold. I could have the year of perfect happiness then die on the way home. I could spend the year perfectly happy then hit my head on something and develop amnesia. You never know. You should always live in the moment.

This is fun. and I plan to continue...in fact I'll start right now with a follow up question to this one.

Which is more important: actual experiences or the memories that remain when the experiences are over?

For me the answer would be the actual experiences, memories will fade.

April

Expect a completely new question either tomorrow or monday afternoon

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 6:12 AM

DONCOAT

The actual experiences are fine and dandy, but without the memories they might as well have never happened at all. And in some cases, not having memories of one's experiences would be downright dangerous.

Simple example: let's say that the experience in question was having an affair with a married woman. Might be a nice thing... but then, if I forgot that she had a very big, very violent husband, I could be in real trouble. Similarly, what if I later exhibited certain symptoms, but ignored them because I had no memory of any exposure to that type of disease transmission?

Life without memory can be a very strange thing. Certain injuries and diseases can leave a person with no mechanism for forming long-term memories. In essence, their knowledge of themselves and their surroundings just stops at a certain point. Every day, every hour, is like the very first hour since their deficit occurred.

I saw a documentary once that showed such a case. The man was a musician and symphony conductor before his illness. He was still a fine musician and could play pieces from sheet music or those he'd memorized before the illness. He could still conduct brilliantly. But he was institutionalized. He couldn't function in the real world. If you were introduced to him, he would greet you warmly and converse fairly normally, but if you left his presence for a few minutes and then came in again, it was just as if he'd never met you before.

Don't underestimate the importance of memory. It's a critical part of what makes us who we are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm pointin' right at it!

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Sunday, January 7, 2007 6:32 AM

LITTLEALBATROSS29

I completely agree. Our memory is what makes us well, us.

Not to mention that if I were to say yes to a not remembering I have the feeling I would come away from that year pregnant & not know why

creepy.

Bryce
****************

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Monday, January 8, 2007 4:16 PM

APRILISE

KK New Question time (you can still respond to the other question in the thread too)

Lets see

Ah...Here's one

#6 You discover that your wonderful one-year-old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

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Monday, January 8, 2007 5:04 PM

ASORTAFAIRYTALE

I would exchange it. It wouldn't matter if it was wonderful and all, it wouldn't be mine. It would not be fair for the child to be raised by someone who wasn't their real family, when their real family was off raising some other kid. It's just wouldn't be fair to anyone. You also would have to live wondering what happened to your child, and what happened to them.

---------
Love keeps her in the air when she outta fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home.

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Monday, January 8, 2007 5:26 PM

APRILISE

I would, at the very least, try and get to know the other family. I think it would be worse on everyone if the kids were just switched with no contact with the child I gave up ever again (even though it wasn't mine by 1 year an attachment would have formed) but if I had to switch the child (with no contact) it would be easier to do this at 1 year old then at say 3 or 5 or 10...after a time it would be worse on the child to switch from the home they grew up in to live with strangers. Just look at what happened with Kimberly Mays

At 1 it would be hard but at that age it's more the parent who would go through the most trauma.

In any case I think that if I had to face this situation I would want to be in the child's life as much as possible and would give the other parents the same opportunity, to be in the life of the child they raised for a year.

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Tuesday, January 9, 2007 4:06 PM

TRAVELER

I would keep my mouth shut. Knowing my genetic code, I'm sure I got the better end of the deal. Let the poor bastards that got my child suffer.

Traveler

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007 5:06 AM

CAUSAL

Quote:
Originally posted by Aprilise:
#6 You discover that your wonderful one-year-old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

Would I want to? Of course not. A year is a lot of time to develop an emotional bond. But I think that to have integrity, I would have to notify the other set of parents (the ones that have my genetic off-spring). That's not something that I think I could really keep secret. If they wanted to swap, well, I don't know what I would do. Raises all kinds of interesting questions about DNA and biology and all that. What's more important? The fact that this kid has your genetic code? Or that you've spent a year loving, nurturing and caring for the other one?

________________________________________________________________________
Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets

I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

Vote Firefly! http://www.richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html

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Thursday, January 11, 2007 5:26 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I think our memories shape us. The most important thing to the mind is how we remember something, which is why there are types of therapy that take you back to a bad memory and then tell you to imagine what you wish would have happened. Obviously a bad memory can't be erased, but it can help with the trauma to imagine something else. So the way someone remembers something tends to be the important thing in terms of how they behave and how they react.
Tricky one with the child. I like the idea of trying to get to know the other family and maybe trading babysitting ro something. Of course, it would depend entirely on what kind of family it was. I know that's not brought into the question, but if they were, I dunno, meth-heads or something, probably wouldn't be a swap so much as ending up with two kids.
My mind goes strange places.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007 6:31 AM

ASARIAN

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:

Sure I would. I mean, I'd prefer to be able to remember, but it's still a year of perfect happiness. Happiness is too precious to say no to, I think. Now if you had said "Would you want a year of perfect happiness if for the rest of your life you would be miserable?" I would say no.

Good answer! :)

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

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