Proust Questionnaire: Harold E. Leighton's answers

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On Sat, 05 Nov 11 04:55:03 UTC Harold E. Leighton (37) answered the Proust Questionnaire (click on a question to read other answers):

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?: Misunderstood grief. The murky, gloaming of a suffering wrought by fellow humans--intending only to inflict temporary pain.
Where would you like to live?: London, or the countryside--wrapped up in stupid bliss with my family around me.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?: Laughing. Learning, writing... being connected with friends and loved ones... Drinking tea, reading books, and having good music, always.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?: Solitude and the prattle of characters, while life writes itself outside my door.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?: Hester Prynne, Tess Durbyfield (if such a girl can be a heroine), and Cathy Earnshaw. I never much cared for Achilles, but Hector I did like.
Who are your favorite characters in history?: Elizabeth I, Caesar Augustus, Artemesia Gentileshi, Benjamin Franklin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey. My mother, always my mother.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?: Oh, see above. I seem to take a dislike to heroes and have more fictional heroines.
Your favorite painter?: Banksy.
Your favorite musician?: Damon Albarn.
The quality you most admire in a man?: Intelligence and grace.
The quality you most admire in a woman?: Truth-telling, but not to the point conversations remind me of blunt instruments.
Your favorite virtue?: Faithfulness, not as a guilt-filled obligation but rather a pleasant, simple act echoing in the universe.
Your favorite occupation?: Writing, dreaming, laughing like a madwoman.
Who would you have liked to be?: Jesus Christ, thankyouverymuch.
Your most marked characteristic?: A desire for a beautiful, solid relationship. Deep, abiding love.
What do you most value in your friends?: Acceptance and the ability to trust.
What is your principle defect?: The desire for power; a need for attention.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?: Not having been brought up in the Bible Belt... ah, a pandora's box the Baptist church has been to me. I owe them for leading me to Judaism, among other things unmentionable here.
What would you like to be?: Just myself. I'm old enough to like the old girl, thank you.
What is your favorite color?: Orange looks so poorly on me, but I do love it for its voice.
What is your favorite flower?: Rambling, fat old rose bushes.
What is your favorite bird?: Big black crows, always preening and cawing outside my windows.
Who are your favorite prose writers?: No one immediate or popular, probably. Vernon Lee, Isak Dinesen.
Who are your favorite poets?: Ted Hughes, T.S. Eliot
Who are your heroes in real life?: H.H. the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Barack H. Obama.
Who are your favorite heroines of history?: Artemesia Gentleshi, Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman
What are your favorite names?: Pass.
What is it you most dislike?: Knowing that quite often people are hell, and yet my frequent failure to circumvent their central heating apparatus.
What historical figures do you most despise?: Hitler and the S.S.
What event in military history do you most admire?: The defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII
What natural gift would you most like to possess?: The health and knowledge necessary to live a long, full life.
How would you like to die?: In bed, at an advanced age, with my faculties and physical body only worn out, not destroyed. Best--with my family near, able to say goodbye.
What is your present state of mind?: Tired.
What is your motto?: Live, Love, Laugh. Yes--trite but true.

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