April 26, 2015

Whom would you like to be friends with? Why?

Laura: For me this is almost the same question as the recent one about reading someone's mind. So you might refer back to April 21st, 2015, for that entry.

In my life currently, I am connected loosely on Facebook to a friend of a friend who I've met a few times at certain events (Melissa Meyer, who is a good friend to a handful of Twisted Pixel wives). She is one of those people who seems to be one who is equal parts intelligence, empathy, faith, love, hope, fitness, joy, priorities, motivation, courage, and goodness. I'd love to become better friends with her, because very few people I know fit that description and it's the kind of person I want to surround myself with, and I aspire to become more like her.

Naveen: It's so weird, like I could say Einstein. Yeah, it's cheesy, but ok, Albert Einstein. I would like to be able to have a conversation with him, like have a podcast with him and learn more about him and his theories. Oppenheimer.. asking him about what he ended up doing and what he dedicated his life to afterward.. those people are fascinating.

Another one that's more personal might be my own grandfather, my mom's dad. I'd like to know what he thought about certain things. When I was a kid, my relationship with him was different, and now when you're older, your perspectives on life change and you wish you could ask people like your grandparents about their thoughts and experiences. I would ask about morality and different lifestyle choices, bigger things than what you think about when you're a child. And maybe I wouldn't have liked his answers, and maybe we would have disagreed on certain things, but it doesn't mean we'd hate each other. For example I disagree with my mom about religion (particular Sathya Sai Baba, or Sathyanarayana Raju), but we still get along. But of course if my grandfather and I discovered we had like minds or he could enlighten me, that would have been wonderful. You're not always going to be able to apply one person's experience or wisdom and reconcile it with your own -- everyone's life is different than yours. But my favorite thing about learning elders' wisdom include where we can find common ground. Like marriage. It would be interesting to learn about my grandfather's marriage, his views on my parents, his view on being Indian and our country of origin, things like that. I don't care about listening to older people complain about how they don't like what younger people are doing these days. I want to know about things that matter, relationships. I'd want to hear about his life as a young Indian, and my mom when she was younger, and learning about the origin of my parents. My mom isn't a sheltered lady, she had to take huge risks and she wasn't handed everything, and as crazy as she is, she actually does know something about what I've been through and does have relatable experience, so I can only imagine my grandfather as having some similar qualities.