Questionnaire

  -- I am reminded, for no rational reason, of my daughter playing Emily Dickinson. I have question for her: how much hurt is she willing to inflict to protect that within her that she, futilely I suspect, seeks to protect by breaking my heart anew, again and again and again . . .  I don't think eviscerating me, crippling me, could possibly be a benefit for her. Hurting another never heals someone's pain, it is a sin, I think, to willfully hurt others. It is a sin to have taken so much from me and then dumped me once I ran out of money to give her.

Katie, please name how much pain you are willing to inflict on your mother to protect the unprotectable within yourself. WTF did I do?

Questionnaire
by Wendell Berry

How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.
For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.
What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy
In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.
State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security;
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.