Hodgepodge

Thanks to Joyce for hosting the Hodgepodge. Here are this week's question:

1. This week marks the beginning of Lent...will you be giving something up or adding anything to your life during this season of the year?

I would give up religion but I have already done that for years.  I appreciate and respect that other's have a firm faith in a deity but it is just not for me.

2. The day before Lent is Shrove Tuesday... tradition states you eat pancakes on this day. In some parts of the world Shrove Tuesday is actually known as 'pancake day'. How do you like your pancakes? Or don't you?

I really do like red velvet pancakes.  Then again, I am a fan of red velvet anything.  I have not fallen in love with southern cuisine but red velvet does it for me.

3. I'm sure there are many, but what's one love song you really love?

4. What are some things you do to let others know you love them?

I really hate this type of question.  I dislike public displays of affection.  I abhor contrived emotion.  I find that words of courtly love are often empty and enmity.  I loathe the concept of paying for love through gift giving.  I display malevolence for social conditioning and the romantic ethos makes me feel revulsion.  

5. Roses...red, pink, or do you prefer another color? Can you recall the last time someone gave you flowers? Given your choice would you like to open the door and see a dozen red roses, a dozen purple tulips, or a dozen pink peonies?

Shouldn't all roses be yellow?  

6. President's Day will be celebrated in America next Monday. Does US Presidential history and trivia interest you? Many Presidential homes are open to the public and offer guided tours...Monticello (Jefferson's home), Mount Vernon (Washington's home), Montpelier (James Madison's home), Hyde Park (FD Roosevelt's home) and The White House (home to the sitting President) to name just a few. Of those listed which would you be most interested in touring? Why?

I would like to go to the White House.  I think the workings of government is fascinating.  I also kind of get a kick out of the pageantry of US governmental traditions. 

7. Are you good at keeping secrets?

Perhaps...want to tell me one and find out?

8. Insert your own random thought here.

The more I am around Valentine's Day - the more I dislike the day.  Many think of this holiday for its overtures of a romantic love that is based on Middle Age values.  I do not feel the need to prove to my wife that I am a good provider.  She could provide for herself if need be.  It just works out that I paid for my work and she is a never stay-at-home mom.  I also do not feel the need to make a grandiose romantic overtures.  She knows I love her because I demonstrate my respect daily.  I treat her as a partner and an intellectual equal.  That is what real men do and I do not need a special day to have me prove any of it to her.