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Sep. 27th, 2008 05:16 amColor test - kind of like a puzzle. It was fun even with a bit of eyestrain. I got a perfect score. :-)
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Sep. 27th, 2008
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Sep. 27th, 2008 12:07 pmYour result for The RPG Class Test...
Mystic Theurge
41% Combativeness, 20% Sneakiness, 62% Intellect, 69% Spirituality
Brilliant and spiritual! You are a Mystic Theurge!
Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you've fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't.
The Mystic Theurge is a combination of a cleric and a mage. They can cast both arcane and divine spells, and are good at both, making them pretty terrifying on the battlefield. They have more raw spellpower than just about any other class.
You're both intelligent and faithful, but not violent or deceitful. I guess that makes you a pretty good person.
Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you've fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't.
The Mystic Theurge is a combination of a cleric and a mage. They can cast both arcane and divine spells, and are good at both, making them pretty terrifying on the battlefield. They have more raw spellpower than just about any other class.
You're both intelligent and faithful, but not violent or deceitful. I guess that makes you a pretty good person.
The past couple of weeks have been really hard. Dave had a biopsy of the colon and there were some scary looking areas that his doctor wanted to check out. We've been waiting on the results to come back. (They did. Low grade dysplasia, which isn't cancer, but seems to be headed that way. He is likely a candidate for surgery. We have had a first meeting with a surgeon and will have another in four weeks.)
And this to me, is so much about what marriage is about. As horrible as this sort of waiting is, it is part of what I signed on for when I signed the marriage license. If something catastrophic happens to one of us, it happens to both of us. If something fantastic happens to one of us, it happens to both of us. We are lovers, but more than that, we are a partnership facing life together in all of its richness and complexity. We are a team. . .not in the Successories way, but in the navigating-through-life way.
From chapter 41 of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott:
"You must be tired. Rest a little, and let me row. It will do me good, for since you came I have been altogether lazy and luxurious."
"I'm not tired, but you may take an oar, if you like. There's room enough, though I have to sit nearly in the middle, else the boat won't trim," returned Laurie, as if he rather liked the arrangement.
Feeling that she had not mended matters much, Amy took the offered third of a seat, shook her hair over her face, and accepted an oar. She rowed as well as she did many other things, and though she used both hands, and Laurie but one, the oars kept time, and the boat went smoothly through the water.
"How well we pull together, don't we?" said Amy, who objected to silence just then.
"So well that I wish we might always pull in the same boat. Will you, Amy?" very tenderly.
"Yes, Laurie," very low.
Then they both stopped rowing, and unconsciously added a pretty little tableau of human love and happiness to the dissolving views reflected in the lake.
I love that metaphor; it feels so much like what marriage is - moving together, one person or the other expending more energy on the journey at any given time, but on the whole, efforts just being shared. Marriage isn't merely the love, though that's an important part of it. It's a shared maneuvering through life.
Today, two of my friends are pledging marriage vows to each other in California. I wasn't able to be there, but they have been in my thoughts for much of the day. I feel comforted and gladdened by the idea that they will be together through life's challenges, that they have made this most holy of commitments to each other.
And on this same day, I pass by signs urging me to vote YES on an amendment to Florida's state constitution, because Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman. I can't think of any other equation that so completely misses the entire point of what this cultural institution is about.
Marriage equals parts combined that are greater than the whole. Marriage is gestalt. It's more than the pretty tableau of Amy and Laurie rowing together. It's the trip itself.
I don't know if any of us know quite what this process is when we agree to do it. I certainly didn't know, back on an absolutely beautiful day in January in Florida, that it was more about waiting than wishing, more about compromise than congratulations. I don't know if my friends know that, not yet. But it is my fervent hope that they will - that they will remain a team through sickness and health, through poverty and wealth. That they will know that neither truly can be poor as long as he has the other by his side.
Congratulations, David and Ryan. May you find the journey to be fulfilling in the way of all those who have come before you. May you find both solace and inspiration in each other's arms, away from the eyes of the world. And, one day, may that world have sense enough to embrace your marriage vows fully. Until then, know that the fault is in the world, not in yourselves.
May you always pull in the same boat.
And this to me, is so much about what marriage is about. As horrible as this sort of waiting is, it is part of what I signed on for when I signed the marriage license. If something catastrophic happens to one of us, it happens to both of us. If something fantastic happens to one of us, it happens to both of us. We are lovers, but more than that, we are a partnership facing life together in all of its richness and complexity. We are a team. . .not in the Successories way, but in the navigating-through-life way.
From chapter 41 of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott:
"You must be tired. Rest a little, and let me row. It will do me good, for since you came I have been altogether lazy and luxurious."
"I'm not tired, but you may take an oar, if you like. There's room enough, though I have to sit nearly in the middle, else the boat won't trim," returned Laurie, as if he rather liked the arrangement.
Feeling that she had not mended matters much, Amy took the offered third of a seat, shook her hair over her face, and accepted an oar. She rowed as well as she did many other things, and though she used both hands, and Laurie but one, the oars kept time, and the boat went smoothly through the water.
"How well we pull together, don't we?" said Amy, who objected to silence just then.
"So well that I wish we might always pull in the same boat. Will you, Amy?" very tenderly.
"Yes, Laurie," very low.
Then they both stopped rowing, and unconsciously added a pretty little tableau of human love and happiness to the dissolving views reflected in the lake.
I love that metaphor; it feels so much like what marriage is - moving together, one person or the other expending more energy on the journey at any given time, but on the whole, efforts just being shared. Marriage isn't merely the love, though that's an important part of it. It's a shared maneuvering through life.
Today, two of my friends are pledging marriage vows to each other in California. I wasn't able to be there, but they have been in my thoughts for much of the day. I feel comforted and gladdened by the idea that they will be together through life's challenges, that they have made this most holy of commitments to each other.
And on this same day, I pass by signs urging me to vote YES on an amendment to Florida's state constitution, because Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman. I can't think of any other equation that so completely misses the entire point of what this cultural institution is about.
Marriage equals parts combined that are greater than the whole. Marriage is gestalt. It's more than the pretty tableau of Amy and Laurie rowing together. It's the trip itself.
I don't know if any of us know quite what this process is when we agree to do it. I certainly didn't know, back on an absolutely beautiful day in January in Florida, that it was more about waiting than wishing, more about compromise than congratulations. I don't know if my friends know that, not yet. But it is my fervent hope that they will - that they will remain a team through sickness and health, through poverty and wealth. That they will know that neither truly can be poor as long as he has the other by his side.
Congratulations, David and Ryan. May you find the journey to be fulfilling in the way of all those who have come before you. May you find both solace and inspiration in each other's arms, away from the eyes of the world. And, one day, may that world have sense enough to embrace your marriage vows fully. Until then, know that the fault is in the world, not in yourselves.
May you always pull in the same boat.