I’ve written about Sara before. I was browsing the back pages of her site and found this dazzling question:

Say you were meeting a new person - blind date, new friend, who knows. And you wanted them to have some idea of what kind of person you are, and who you are. But you can't actually tell them in so many words. Instead, you have to give them a box, with a dozen things in it for them to ponder over.

So I gave it some thought ...

1. A S Byatt’s Possession
2. The “baby book” about Sebastian documenting milestones and development, including random photos
3. An old, ripped advertisement from a magazine, featuring a cartier tank watch.
4. The soundtrack from the musical Rent
5. Naked Motherhood by Wendy LeBlanc
6. Photocopies of my university degrees
7. Photographs, and collages, artfully scrapbooked. I wish so much to leave a paper-trail of who we are as a family, so that Sebastian will always know where he came from, what his roots are, and how much he is loved.
8. The logos of tiffany, louis vuitton and malhono blahnik
9. A hair iron. Oh how I hate my frizz.
10. A photograph from my wedding day
11. Alanis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill
12. The recipe for my mother's sweet and sour pork.
     

Then I thought I’d try and answer the question as if I was Wayne. This is my attempt:

1. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb U2
2. Everything else by U2
3. His running shoes, and comrades marathon medals
4. The mountain pass for Perisher Valley
5. A biography of someone heroic, like Ranulph Fiennes or Edmund Hilary
6. His omega wristwatch
7. A business card for Parvenu Projects
8.  
9.  
10.  
11.  
12.  

Wayne is always bemused by these things I do. He calls them my "hypotheticals." But I find them really challenging, and I think it helps me define who I am in my own head. If you'd like to send me your responses to this, I would be really really interested.

More soon. A. x

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               Update 13 August 2005.

               Sarah Napthali's response