Answers: Life & Death

With this final post I'll have my bases covered from the cradle to the grave.  Many thanks to all who participated in making this series happen.  Next week I'll be g̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶v̶e̶n̶g̶e̶  hosting my annual survey!  I hope you'll join in.

Debbie says: I have always wondered how old you are? 

BJ says:  I would be very interested in knowing your age.

I'm 22.

Martha asks: Have you ever broken a bone?  No.

Anonymous asks: Did you go to college?  No.

Lois says: Your hair is so beautiful. Do you often get compliments on it?

Thank you!  Yes...and I "accidentally" compliment myself all the time: whenever I see a redhead, I tell her I love her hair color! :D  Oh, and as a side effect, I love Edmund Blair Leighton's artwork!

Anonymous asks: What is your normal everyday schedule? 

I wake up around 6:00, eat three meals, work, relax, and go to sleep at around 11:00.  

Anonymous asks: Do you have a job? If so, where do you work?

I work for my family's business, Carson Concrete and Welding.  I help make the concrete pads that go under residential propane tanks.  I also work in sales: marketing the concrete pads.

Besides that, I help at a local orchard and do a lot of odd jobs.  Since this spring I've been working on adding another (full time) job, but haven't had success so far.  I guess it's nice I don't really need one, since I live with my family.  But I do like working and in particular, getting paid (my favorite part).

Martha asks: What do you see (or would like to see) in your future? 

In the immediate future, I want to:

• Run a faster than 25-minute 5K.  My current best time is 25:40-something, and I am dreadfully consistent in staying at around 25-26-27 every race.  On a side note, I just ran my first 10K race last weekend back-to-back with a 5K!  I may or may not have hardly been able to walk and questioned my own sanity afterward...
• Catch up on my blogging, so I don't have events from months ago waiting to be written about.
• Finish reading It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton before the election.
• Actually decide for whom to vote.
• Go to one more chess tournament before the year is over.
• Add a couple more counties to my list of courthouses visited.
• Implement one more new work-related idea before the end of the year.

Eventually I would also enjoy travelling more of the country/world, raising a family, writing books, perhaps running for public office, and maybe doing some mission work.

Provided the world continues a long time, I'd like to live to be quite elderly.  Then (unless I find another cemetery to call home) I want to be interned in Union, Iowa with my forebears.

But only God knows the future.  I could die tomorrow.  And everyone always gets what they ask for, as The Restaurant of Life attests.

"Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand.  

But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand."  --Ira Stanphill

Anonymous asks: When are you going to get married? Could you describe him to us? 

I suppose when a particularly delightful gentleman asks me... and I say yes.

As for a description: How about someone who understands the fallibility of mortals but focuses on the infallibility of the Immortal?

Enrique says: Hi Bethany, regardless of whether you buy lottery tickets, what would you do if you won the lottery? 

I don't play the lottery, so let's just say some unknown relation suddenly passes in Nigeria and actually does deed me a few million in her will.  (Maybe I should re-check my emails.)

I'd invest it...in a lot of places: dividend-paying stocks, gold, silver, stamps, land, and miscellaneous small businesses.  I'd also travel more.  Who knows?  I might even think of a way to help people.

But to be honest, I really hope it doesn't happen.  People I don't especially like would probably want to become much better friends... and the friends I do like would probably think I'm too busy.

Phil asks: I suppose nearly everyone has aspirations, hopes, and dreams that they'd like to accomplish in their lifetime. Assuming you do too, what's the one thing at the top of that list that you're most passionate about seeing (or making) happen?

The general goal of humankind is to perpetuate their own existence.  People do this by writing books and songs, inventing items, naming places after themselves, building monuments, creating trusts and charitable foundations, and having children.

My first goal is to perpetuate my happy eternal existence through faith in Jesus and by laying up treasures in heaven.  I also want to always treat others fairly and do the right thing, so I can live & die with a clear conscience and no regrets.

“Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you get neither."  --C.S. Lewis