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01 October 2010

Friday Night Question! Time for another random question from The Book of Questions:→[More:]

#155 - Which would you prefer: a wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure- intoxicating successes and stunning setbacks; or a happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family without such wide swings of fortune and mood?

post by: BoringPostcards at: 19:32 | 32 comments

The second one, most definitely.

happy, secure, predictable life surrounded by friends and family

Who could ask for anything more?

posted by LoriFLA 01 October | 19:35

The word "happy" in the second description makes me more inclined to pick the second. If it wasn't there and was just secure & predictable, I may be more tempted to go for the first as I'm not so sure that secure & predictable = happy. So yeah as it stands, I'll take door number two.

posted by nelvana 01 October | 19:39

I have to go with nelvana, it says happy.

posted by ethylene 01 October | 19:44

I love these!

I kind of want both.

posted by serazin 01 October | 19:44

Number two, thanks. And so far, that's what I've gotten, lucky me.

posted by bearwife 01 October | 19:53

Happy secure! Happy secure!

posted by Elsa 01 October | 19:56

In my younger days I'd totally have taken choice number one, but now I know that memories of sorrow hurt more than memories of joy uplift- you need current happiness. So I'd take choice number two.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 October | 19:57

I'd take the second option as well. It pretty much describes the periods of my life when I'm the most happy, whereas the first option... well let's just say it does not.

posted by FishBike 01 October | 20:00

Both.

Live the second, describe in fiction the first.

Besides, exciting and dramatic ans kinda relative. I don't think I've had a particually exiting life compared to friends I know who've been waylaid by BANDITS.

posted by The Whelk 01 October | 20:02

I think I'd generally choose one and long for the other, whichever way I picked.

posted by jessamyn 01 October | 20:04

Easy, the second one.

This weekly event is making me realize how long it has been since I've been out on a Friday night.

posted by amro 01 October | 20:32

considering the fact that I am in the midst of the stunning setback stage of the wild & turbulent option and I still see myself as being a happy person, I'd have to choose the turbulence.

I think option 2 would bore me to tears.

posted by rollick 01 October | 20:46

Definitely the second option.

posted by flex 01 October | 21:13

I big red heart stability and happiness, and I find my passions in all sorts of things that don't necessarily involve high adventure (unless it's high adventure of the mind! Thinking is the best way to travel!), so I'm a number two person, too.

posted by lriG.rorriM 01 October | 21:36

I never answer anything that has only two choices.

posted by JanetLand 01 October | 21:41

I vote for thrills, lust, danger and adventure - come what may.

posted by warbaby 01 October | 21:42

Happy. Because at least you have the happy.

(but I think JanetLand has the best answer so far)

posted by casarkos 01 October | 21:51

For years I would have said the turbulent ride where you never know what's up next and any moment can lead to glory and riches. But then I realized I had carved out a wonderful life with my wife and have found an inner peace I had never imagined possible. So I am now deeply entrenched in the second option. The stories might not be as exciting with the second route, but there's something very peaceful and satisfying with the middle ground. But as jessamyn alluded to above, the other option occasionally knocks, but I know I can't answer the door anymore.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 01 October | 22:19

I just picked #1. For now.

posted by Eideteker 01 October | 22:26

I'm with Jessamyn.

posted by richat 01 October | 22:28

Second one. When I was younger, I overvalued drama and extremes and would have argued for the first. Now that I'm middle aged, I really think I have been lucky enough to experience the second, and from what I've seen of some other life stories, I realize I'm quite lucky to have the second. I think adventure and achievements, setbacks and sorrows, are readily available experiences without them being such "wide swings." With my temperament, I don't need any added wide swinging beyond what my overactive, overly romantic mind can scheme up.

posted by Miko 01 October | 22:35

Fortunately, we don't ever have to make this choice, and you can actually have both in one life anyway.

posted by Miko 01 October | 22:36

I'm with Miko.

posted by mykescipark 01 October | 22:45

A wild, turbulent life filled with joy, sorrow, passion, and adventure- intoxicating successes, stunning setbacks, happy, surrounded by friends and family covers my life. These things are not binaries. I hate when questions make dumb assumptions like that.

posted by arse_hat 01 October | 22:59

The is the same question my high school girlfriend posed to me just after graduation, only not in so many words. I went with option 1 and have no regrets.

posted by Ardiril 02 October | 00:23

Sure, I'd love number two. But I got number one and there's no going back.

posted by mygothlaundry 02 October | 01:16

I've got both, and that's just the way the cookie crumbles, I now have large stretches of #2, with the occassional #1 espisode and it works out quite well, cos the family and friends stay with me through both so I guess that's the secret.

when I was in my 20's it was long stretches of #1 punctuated briefly by #2 but then I married #2! :)

posted by Wilder 02 October | 07:17

I think I have #2 during the week, but try to sneak in as much #1 as I can when I get the chance.

posted by JoanArkham 02 October | 08:40

I think I'd generally choose one and long for the other, whichever way I picked.
This.

posted by dg 02 October | 15:00

#1, for sure

posted by youngergirl44 02 October | 17:43

One! One! One!

posted by rainbaby 03 October | 19:01

The first few years the mister and I were together it was full of #1. We tried so hard to get to #2 and we're, mostly, there now. We're both so much happier.

posted by deborah 03 October | 19:44

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