A Fresh Serving of Minterview

By On June 16, 2010 · 9 Comments · In Featured, Minterview

Minterview:  boil it, bread it, fry it, fricassee it, baste it, broil it, grill it, filet it.  Serve it up with fava beans and a nice Chianti.  Better yet, make it into bright green jelly and serve it with roast lamb.  What’s a Minterview?  It’s an appetizer, if you will – a thought-whetter, tapas for your  mind, an amuse-bouche for your brain.  Below you’ll find two questions.  Answer one or both in the Comments box – OR, the most delicious option of all! – ask someone else.  We can’t wait to taste your answers.

1.  I’ve heard it said that everyone has a “landscape of the soul” – a place on the planet (or maybe in our imagination) that feels most like home.  Where’s your landscape of the soul?

2.  Which would you rather be:  Happy but not know it, or stupid but not care?

 
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  • Star5fallonmyheart

    1) Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach, California. I volunteered there for community service for a class. I had to put in 20 hours and log in 12 journal entries chronicling my journey. I thought it was insanity to fall in love with a place–until I began working there. Something about the water, the shape of the body of the water, the plant life, the animal life, the work that I put into it, and what I learned in class all converged together. Working there was one of the greatest joys of my life. I was even offered an internship towards the end of my time there, but I had to reject it because I already had a job. There's always something everyone regrets–something they look back on and wonder why didn't they do things differently. This was one of those moments for me. I often kick myself for saying no to one of the places that gave me the most joy and love. Colorado Lagoon is blessedly close by my school so I can go anytime I want to visit (and when my ankle is 100% back to normal I'll see if I can start volunteering again). But I still miss it terribly everyday.

  • http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/wartime/ Sean Labrador y Manzano

    2. Tappia Falls in the Batad Rice Terraces in the Philippines. When I was there 9 years ago, the bulldozers paving the road were three miles from it. Me and a buddy left the main group at the village trading post–because they were too tired and uninspired to hike, so went down the rice terrace valley, crossed the village at the bottom (as the cliche–lost in time), another mile later up the valley, found the water fall–swam by ourselves, had to leave, took us twice as long to get back, found our group had left, night fell, and having difficulty in the dark down the mountain, past bulldozers we were finally guided by lightning bugs. The group, waiting in the van at the bottom of the trail, where pavement ended in gravel, was pissed that we had missed the hotel's staged version of Ifugao tribal dance. Me an my buddy, as soon as we developed the pictures, proved to the group what was missed, a magical ribbon diving into a crystal pool–something rare in the Philippines where most waters are polluted and muddy. In that pool, I was not afraid to drink its water.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/S4YN7HJTPBRVFTTUVXQTCBELQE Suzanne

    I actually feel like I want to jump in and answer this myself. How fun!

    Whenever I want to go to that “soul place” in my head, I visualize a beautiful, peaceful landscape that I visited about 20 yrs ago. It is in Switzerland. I go back to the forest that I walked in with thick, leafy trees and a babbling brook. And a ton of fireflies. Then if I really want to relax, I hear the sound of that distant train that I heard, tooting off in the distance. It brings back such lovely memories.

    I think I'd rather be happy and not know it. Just because I'd automatically be relaxed and energetic, even if I didn't know why.

    I hope you enjoy my answers.

  • Peggy R. Dobbs

    Disqus still doesn't lke me, so I have to sneak in as a guest. Back to the question. Since you used the word soul and planet, I must move from spirit landscape which is another question completelely.
    The beauty of mountains and the flowing of water both have a calming effect on me, especially if there are people I love as part of the scene. To me life is about relationships and who I'm with is more important in my landscape than where we are. To love and be loved makes almost any place home.

  • spykergyrl

    And now I'm going to abandon wit in favor of pure mush: I live in the landscape of my soul. It's right here, outside my front door. It's Douglas fir and blackberries and sweet-smelling grass. It's deep forest and ferns and creeks and lakes and moss and mist in the trees. It's rhododendrons and buttercups and wild sweet peas and trillium. It's red-winged blackbirds and great blue herons and osprey, frogs who sing me to sleep at night and deer and raccoons and little brown bunnies who hop into our yard at dusk. It's sitting on my front porch and thinking about making blueberry-rhubarb jam, and hiking beside a stream until we get to a waterfall. It's looking out my window and seeing the snowy stub of Mt. St. Helens and remembering the day it blew. It's driving over the hill and seeing the mighty blue-green Columbia sparkling in the sunshine and feeling that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

  • spykergyrl

    I would rather be stupid but not care. In fact, I might already be.

  • Miryam

    There is a special place tucked within the high hills of Engedi, outside of Jerusalem, which reflects the landscape of my soul… I must hike through steep and rocky terrain, passing caves, deer, and various little two eyed creatures…. and then suddenly I come upon a luscious waterfall jetting from a sheer rock, gushing into a turquoise pool…The noise of water falling silences my nervous thoughts, as I slide into the water, cooling my body from the long hike. These waters are a combination of mineral hot springs and deep mountain fountains, creating a perfect temperature…. As I sit in the hot dessert sun, upon a saucer shaped rock that hovers over this pool, I imagine how David fled to these very hills for safety from Saul, and I reflect on his words in the book of Psalms… This is a place of majestic beauty, and spiritual depth for me. It is powerful for me to think that I could be sitting on the same rock where David once sat, as he cried out to Gd in praises! Even more powerful to know that His Gd is my Gd, who is my solid rock, my safety, and my living water…

  • Miryam

    Apathy is a far greater loss than ignorance. For in ignorance there is still hope for knowledge… and in hope there is happiness.

  • Peggy R. Dobbs

    Mountains and water, but not just any mountains or water. We share the love of the bible scenery, particularly in the Psalms that David wrote. Jerusalem and the Mediterranean are the areas I regret that I never got to see. Your description makes me realize even more how much I have missed. You painted a beautiful word picture from the heart. pd