If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
My husband has a favorite shirt, which he prefers to all others. I think we all have outfits, which we pick to wear over others.
Sometimes, the outfit is best suited to a particular occasion. Sometimes, it’s the easiest one you run into when you open the closet.
How important is spirituality in your life?
As a devoutly atheistic person, I tend to treat questions of spirituality as code for queries on religion.
I realize they are not the same. If asked if I were religious, I would say that God has a great deal to answer for. Am I spiritual, perhaps just the fact that I reference God suggests my ambivalence.
You are religious, aka one who takes all matters at faith value, but maybe you don’t connect closely with the greater universe.
You don’t follow the Bible or the Quaran or some other text from the annals of religious time, but you are literally in sync with the moon and the stars. Pagan and spiritual.
Spirituality has its limits if you are seeing ghosts, naive about good and evil, or indulging in reverential fantasies
Believe or doubt. You can still have a sense of kindness and respect for the forces of man and nature.
Who is your favorite historical figure?
It’s not really history if you’ve lived it but I greatly admire Martin Luther King, Jr.
He always maintained a harmonious dignity and respectful rhetoric.
He was a true peace maker.
He paid dearly for his efforts on behalf of equality and social justice.
Given our current civil status, I can only hope that his martyrdom was not in vain.
What are you passionate about?
Can it be relative?
Passion, for instance, like a love for Tide detergent vs. Percil is relative.
I’m thinking “no” because that relativity dilutes passion into just a liking. It cools it.
I take many things seriously enough to be passionate in my thinking. That extends from food to politics with stops along the way to consider climate issues and civic discord.
Taking the day’s question in its best light, I have to admit to a passion for my friends and their friendship.
I am certainly passionate about the love of my life. After over 30 years together, I am still mad about him.
Passion has many guises.
If humans had taglines, what would yours be?
Are we defined by the things we say about ourselves? A tagline can be a limiting description.
I am going with The Real Tamara.
Use that both for my tagline and my nametag.
Who do you spend the most time with?
It is a boon to have the time and wherewithal to be able to lose oneself in thought.
It is a loss that brings us many gains.
The rush and whir of even the best company can be a distraction.
I value the distractions of society.
I learn from acquaintances as we pass aphorisms and chit-chat.
Being with my love and my friends brings me pleasure and joy.
I treasure these times but need my own time as well.
Time alone is as important to me as time spent with others.
Luckily, I spend the most of my time with myself.
It gives me the happenstance, time and grace for self-reflection.
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
When? Why? Wherefore?
All of the above.
Describe your dream chocolate bar.
Nuts are the not so secret ingredient that meets my chocolate fantasies. Small pieces of nuts as in the Baci from Perugina are the epitome of sweet deliciousness. It’s the crunch that takes goodness to greatness.
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
My memory is spotty, but I remember loving a biography of Mickey Mantle taken from the school library in 4th, 5th, or 6th grade.
In retrospect, I realize it should have been placed in the congratulatory fiction category, but it was inspiring. To this day, I can’t shake my true admiration for number 7.
My love for sports themed storytelling has also stayed with me. I’ve just repositioned it onto film.
What fears have you overcome and how?
I climb to the very top of my step ladder these days. It’s an exercise in balance and a way of overcoming the fear of heights.
Well, yes, a shortcut to fighting the fear. The step ladder is not all that high. I attain the second step with some difficulty. I rummage at the top of my cabinets. When I descend, I am happy for my accomplishment.
All The Best