Pre-Courtship Questionnaire - pt 6 Your Future
While on a train with no internet access, I typed some answers to the the fundamentalist relationship meme of doom: http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2013/06/the-pre-courtship-questionnaire/.
163. Can you describe your life purpose, i.e., how you intend to use your interests, experiences, skills, and talents to serve and glorify God?
I'm pretty sure my life purpose is to make a bunch of music, but this has nothing to do with your religion.
164. What role would your wife and children play in your life purpose?
Well, I don't want to get all Captain Ahab about anything in my life and don't see myself on a singular mission. I can't feel happy or fulfilled if I'm isolated. I want to love and support my hypothetical future family and would hope they would love and support me.
165. What role would your job/career play in your life purpose?
My career plans are structured around the music thing.
166. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In 20 years?
This is becoming disturbing like the job interviews and performance evaluations I used to have while working for the tech industry...
The chances of me becoming a rock star are, alas, vanishingly small at my age. In ten years, I would like to be fairly well known in my field and have a stable job. In 20 years, I would like to be very well known in my field and either in a senior position or able to just do music.
167. Where do you see yourself spiritually in 10 years? In 20 years?
I would hope that I would still be an atheist, but I may go looking for a non-deistic, human-oriented spiritual practice.
168. When the Lord calls you home, how would you like people to remember you?
I hope that people do remember me.
169. What are your goals in life? (Long and short term)
I want to come up with some good music and some new ideas. I want to lead people to think about timbre, texture and social organisation in new ways. I want to be part of a philosophical and artistic milieu that re-energises the left.
170. Identify three things that you want to accomplish in the near future.
Get an academic job, finish my opera, rewrite the OscGroupClient library in SuperCollider (which is what I should be doing right now). I also need to write some papers, generalise my timing stuff I wrote for the Vocal Constructivists, write the score I need to write for them, develop a piece for the Other Minds Festival, record the piece I just toured with and try to get it released someplace... gah...
171. Identify three things that you want to accomplish, long term.
For a while, people kept telling me I should write a book, so I that's on my radar. And get a solid academic job. And get a good RAE score....
172. What is the purpose of the family/what will be the purpose of your family?
I want everyone in my family to be happy and fulfilled individuals who also have senses of solidarity and of being a part of something with other people.
173. What is your life’s verse?
There's a time I would have said Romans 1:26, but that doesn't really apply any more.
174. What do you feel is God’s will and calling for your life?
Your religion might have a goal for me, but it is not my goal for me.
175. What made you come to that conclusion?
Seriously, the religion of my upbringing could not possibly been more clear that I was not welcome there. On the one hand, I have some lingering bitterness about this. On the other hand, many of the points of faith get very wobbly when I examine them. It's like being kicked out a club that you probably wouldn't have wanted to be in anyway.
176. What were the circumstances around you that caused you to make that decision?
I went to 12 years of Catholic school and over a year of evening confirmation classes. I did not have a casual relationship with the institutions of Catholicism.
177. Do you remember the date or time in life that you realized God’s will for your life?
I have a lot of friends who have faith and that's good for them and I briefly envied them for it and so I do try to speak gently about these things, for fear of offending them. they're good people and their faith and good nature has lead them to do good things. It brings them comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Other people's faith does not concern me and I have absolutely no grounds to object to it. However, from the outside, the religion I was raised in seems like an overly complicated fantasy built on top of a largely corrupt hierarchy, as do most protestant denominations. However, I know many excellent people who are believers and even in the clergy and I have no doubt in my mind that they've done only good things for and because of their faith.
178. Are you headed in the direction that you feel God would have you go?
A lot of people's gods would have me lead a horrendously unhappy life or else go to hell, so I am absolutely not headed in those directions.
179. Are you totally and completely committed to doing God’s Will NO MATTER WHAT?
This question makes me think of Huck Finn deciding to reject god and go to hell, by doing the 'immoral' thing of helping a slave escape. If something is a moral and just thing to do, I would hope that I would do it no matter what obstacles were erected, even if religion said it was wrong.
180. Is there anything that would keep you from following Him?
Just about every circumstance of my adult life....
181. Are you open to God changing His will and you going in a different direction if He so chooses?
When I decided to change from tech to music, I kind of plunged into unknown territory, knowing only I was unhappy and needed to change my life in some drastic ways. These have turned out to extremely drastic. I don't want to do anything so dramatic again, but I have some options open.
182. Is quitting or giving up an option for you?
If something is terrible or intolerable, then this may well be a sign I'm heading in the wrong direction.
163. Can you describe your life purpose, i.e., how you intend to use your interests, experiences, skills, and talents to serve and glorify God?
I'm pretty sure my life purpose is to make a bunch of music, but this has nothing to do with your religion.
164. What role would your wife and children play in your life purpose?
Well, I don't want to get all Captain Ahab about anything in my life and don't see myself on a singular mission. I can't feel happy or fulfilled if I'm isolated. I want to love and support my hypothetical future family and would hope they would love and support me.
165. What role would your job/career play in your life purpose?
My career plans are structured around the music thing.
166. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In 20 years?
This is becoming disturbing like the job interviews and performance evaluations I used to have while working for the tech industry...
The chances of me becoming a rock star are, alas, vanishingly small at my age. In ten years, I would like to be fairly well known in my field and have a stable job. In 20 years, I would like to be very well known in my field and either in a senior position or able to just do music.
167. Where do you see yourself spiritually in 10 years? In 20 years?
I would hope that I would still be an atheist, but I may go looking for a non-deistic, human-oriented spiritual practice.
168. When the Lord calls you home, how would you like people to remember you?
I hope that people do remember me.
169. What are your goals in life? (Long and short term)
I want to come up with some good music and some new ideas. I want to lead people to think about timbre, texture and social organisation in new ways. I want to be part of a philosophical and artistic milieu that re-energises the left.
170. Identify three things that you want to accomplish in the near future.
Get an academic job, finish my opera, rewrite the OscGroupClient library in SuperCollider (which is what I should be doing right now). I also need to write some papers, generalise my timing stuff I wrote for the Vocal Constructivists, write the score I need to write for them, develop a piece for the Other Minds Festival, record the piece I just toured with and try to get it released someplace... gah...
171. Identify three things that you want to accomplish, long term.
For a while, people kept telling me I should write a book, so I that's on my radar. And get a solid academic job. And get a good RAE score....
172. What is the purpose of the family/what will be the purpose of your family?
I want everyone in my family to be happy and fulfilled individuals who also have senses of solidarity and of being a part of something with other people.
173. What is your life’s verse?
There's a time I would have said Romans 1:26, but that doesn't really apply any more.
174. What do you feel is God’s will and calling for your life?
Your religion might have a goal for me, but it is not my goal for me.
175. What made you come to that conclusion?
Seriously, the religion of my upbringing could not possibly been more clear that I was not welcome there. On the one hand, I have some lingering bitterness about this. On the other hand, many of the points of faith get very wobbly when I examine them. It's like being kicked out a club that you probably wouldn't have wanted to be in anyway.
176. What were the circumstances around you that caused you to make that decision?
I went to 12 years of Catholic school and over a year of evening confirmation classes. I did not have a casual relationship with the institutions of Catholicism.
177. Do you remember the date or time in life that you realized God’s will for your life?
I have a lot of friends who have faith and that's good for them and I briefly envied them for it and so I do try to speak gently about these things, for fear of offending them. they're good people and their faith and good nature has lead them to do good things. It brings them comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Other people's faith does not concern me and I have absolutely no grounds to object to it. However, from the outside, the religion I was raised in seems like an overly complicated fantasy built on top of a largely corrupt hierarchy, as do most protestant denominations. However, I know many excellent people who are believers and even in the clergy and I have no doubt in my mind that they've done only good things for and because of their faith.
178. Are you headed in the direction that you feel God would have you go?
A lot of people's gods would have me lead a horrendously unhappy life or else go to hell, so I am absolutely not headed in those directions.
179. Are you totally and completely committed to doing God’s Will NO MATTER WHAT?
This question makes me think of Huck Finn deciding to reject god and go to hell, by doing the 'immoral' thing of helping a slave escape. If something is a moral and just thing to do, I would hope that I would do it no matter what obstacles were erected, even if religion said it was wrong.
180. Is there anything that would keep you from following Him?
Just about every circumstance of my adult life....
181. Are you open to God changing His will and you going in a different direction if He so chooses?
When I decided to change from tech to music, I kind of plunged into unknown territory, knowing only I was unhappy and needed to change my life in some drastic ways. These have turned out to extremely drastic. I don't want to do anything so dramatic again, but I have some options open.
182. Is quitting or giving up an option for you?
If something is terrible or intolerable, then this may well be a sign I'm heading in the wrong direction.