InsaneJournal

Karista May Stapleton

Character Information

Full Name: Karista May Stapleton
Nicknames: Rista, Kris, "the body of Christ," she's not really picky
PB: Meryl Streep
Age: 59
Birth Date (mm/dd/yyyy): 05/27/1949
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual
Marital Status: Divorced, Single
Children, if any: Three daughters - Louise, 31 (NPC: Mamie Gummer), Emma, 27 (NPC: Claire Danes), and Kensington, 24 (NPC: Amanda Seyfried), all by different fathers
Pets, if any: None
Occupation: Owner and Manager of "Chaos Art Gallery" on N. Broadway
Living Arrangements: Apartment in Greenwich Village, in the same building as nealgreenfeld
Current Location: New York, New York


IC Survey

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Perfect happiness sounds kind of like a trap. I have always said that perfection does not exist. I never wanted any of my daughters to be anything, but who they are, so I hoped to teach them the myth of perfectionism at an early age. Happiness, though, I guess is derived from open hearts and open minds to paraphrase what Bertrand Russell once wrote. Although, for me, personally, I think pure, unadulterated happiness is any moment I get to spend with my daughters.

2. What is your greatest fear? Well, this is a much easier question. I fear any harm that might inflict my children. Not to sound too much like a mother, or like I don't have my own life, but it's the truth. When I think of all the things that could happen to one of my kids, I get this constriction in my chest, and my throat goes dry. It's the most prevalent fear, I think, for any mother.

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Oh, well, where do I begin? This could take all day! The trait that I most deplore in myself...I'd have to say that it's memory-related. I'm old, and this noggin, it's starting to fail me now.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Cruelty. I hate to see other people in pain. It's horrible, especially knowing that we, as human beings, have the capacity to do such cruel, hateful things to one another.

5. Which living person do you most admire? Bono. He's fighting AIDS in Africa. He's fighting poverty and debt. I love his voice. Not to mention that he looks great in leather.

6. What is your greatest extravagance? Art! I love art. I have to surround myself with it. That's why I started my gallery. I also am a collector myself, though I don't have a large one. I like to be around art constantly. It's what I live and breathe. It's like air.

7. What is your current state of mind? I'm content, even peaceful. I can't really say anymore than that since I don't really have the words to describe the sense of peaceful contentment I feel.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Politeness. I mean, we all do it. I am certainly guilty of it too, but it is completely overrated. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just say what we really think and what we really mean? The world would function with so much less dysfunction if we could take everything at face value and be more truthful with each other and as a society as a whole. At least, that's what I think most days.

9. On what occasion do you lie? I really don't make it a habit to lie. I mean, I'm not some Pollyanna, goodie-two-shoes. At least, I don't like to think of it that way. I just don't see the point in pretending or playing games. It all seems like a waste of time and energy. If someone doesn't like me, then fabricating some story isn't going to change that. It's simply not in my nature. I tend to think that whatever happens in real life is much more exciting, unexpected, and dramatic than anything I could imagine anyway. That could just be because I don't have a colorful imagination though. I mean, that's why I sell art instead of make it. I'm not all that creative.

I have told little white lies though. I have called in sick when I needed a mental health day, and I did raise my children to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and all that nonsense. I didn't want them to be ostracized, or be forever hated at the PTA meetings, so I caved with that one. I tell myself it was because the holidays are fun and it's all in good spirit, but technically, they're mass-produced lies to help our capitalist system go on churning and churning. Oh well.

10. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Well, at 59, I'm pretty comfortable with my appearance. I stopped caring around the time I turned 50, if not before. It's all downhill from here! In my youth, way back in the Mesozoic Era, my deviated septum bothered me. But now, I wear it like a battle scar or a badge of courage.

11. Which living person do you most despise? That's tough. I would say it's probably a tie between W and Louis Crawford. I will go with Louis, my ex-husband, and the father of my first daughter, Louise, because it seems like giving Bush, the Lesser, too much power these days to continue hating him. Louis, on the other hand, continues to drive me absolutely batty. Having a child with someone ties you to them forever, whether you want to be tethered in such a way or not. It may not be particularly magnanimous of me to say this, but Louis was a very selfish, controlling type of man. He was highly intellectual and highly self-righteous. He really tried to be liberated and free, but his amoral sense of morality and neuroses just made him an impossible person to be around. Thankfully my daughter did not inherit such traits.

12. What is the quality you most like in a man? The ability to listen and actually hear what another person is saying. For men of my generation especially, it seems really hard for them to listen to what a woman is saying without seeming patronizing or being overly liberal. They were raised as men, and the world was theirs for the taking. It never occurred to them that they might have to share the floor with a woman, or that someone else might be just as entitled as them. It can be such a challenge sometimes.

13. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Confidence. I love women who are at ease with who they are. Women who are sure of what they want and go after it. There is nothing more attractive than a woman who is not only satisfied or comfortable in her own skin, but absolutely empowered by herself. It's inspiring to see. I really tried to instill that kind of self-confidence in my daughters, and I think I did all right. It remains to be seen, I suppose.

14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Oh my god! That's one I really overuse without even thinking about "God." I've used "liberating" a lot here, or at least, I've thought it quite a few times. I don't know. I tend to overuse a lot of words, "really" is another one. I guess I have more of a limited vocabulary than I realized prior to thinking it over.

15. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Oh geez! Who knows? I certainly don't. There have been so many. Seriously, there have been a lot. Other than Louis Crawford, Dennis Harrington III, and Keruouac Kensington, (the three fathers of my daughters), there have been countless others, including Evelyn, Jackie, Alfie, Nate, and even my college roommate, Mia. That's not even all of them, I'm embarrassed to say. And, I have loved them all equally. When it was good, it was good.

16. When and where were you happiest? Back when I was in my late twenties, and living in Brooklyn with Alfie and Nate in our household of three (in every way imaginable that that phrase can be construed). Things were simpler there. We were all happy and dare I say, liberated. I have never felt so free. Louise was young, and every memory seems to be tinted with sunlight pouring through an open window and noises in the street. When I think of it now, I can't help but smile. It was another time, and those moments just couldn't be recreated in our culture now. It almost feels like a dream. It seems like a lifetime ago. It was a lifetime ago.

17. Which talent would you most like to have? If I could do advanced calculus in my head, I think I would be a much more serious person.

18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I wouldn't change anything about my life. Like Nietzsche's eternal recurrence of the same, I think I can honestly say that when I look back on my life, I would want to live every moment again for eternity, exactly as it was, and never make a different choice. That said, my life certainly would have been easier if I hadn't been born with a natural rebellious streak. This yearning for freedom and, ha ha, liberation, has at times, put me against my society, even my country. I don't regret it, but it would have been nice to be able to be happy just being neighborly and selling art without really caring about what else was going on around me, outside of my own little corner of the world. Ignorance is bliss, that sort of thing.

19. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Without a doubt, my daughters. All of them, hands down.

20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I hope I would get to return as a person. It would really suck to have done something so horrible, karmically speaking, to come back as a thing. What a downgrade! I would also hope to come back as another woman. I can't walk a mile in a man's shoes. I just can't.

21. Where would you most like to live? I would love to live in Amsterdam. It's such an exciting city. Ha ha, it's really free! I love all of the canals, the bookstores, the cafes, and the liberalism of the Dutch.

22. What is your most treasured possession? My Andy Warhol.

23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? The sound of someone crying in pain or hurt. Happy crying is fine, but crying is just so hard to hear. I mean, that's as low as we get when we can't help but cry. It's the sound of the lowest depth of misery.

24. What is your favorite occupation? Oh man, if only I had the talent to be an artist. I wouldn't have to be art's mistress! Or, would I be considered art's pimp?

25. What is your most marked characteristic? My deviated septum, for sure. It's pretty distinctive, I'd say.

26. What do you most value in your friends? Their brilliant minds and wonderful hearts.

27. Who are your favorite writers? Where do I begin? Yoko Ono, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Muriel Rukeyser, Toni Morrison, Chaim Potok, Mary Shelley, Milan Kundera, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Keats, should I go on?

28. Who is your hero of fiction? I really do enjoy Clarissa Dalloway despite her apparent focus on the trivialities in life.

29. Which historical figure do you most identify with? Frida Kahlo.

30. Who are your heroes in real life? Alive or dead? If we're talking about real, everyday heroes, I would say my mother. We didn't always get along, but she was a very strong, confident woman in her own right. I was also in love with one of my neighbors growing up. She was this Italian immigrant, and she was so loud, so obnoxious, and so positively beautiful. She was amazing to watch every day. Just brilliant!

31. What are your favorite names? I don't mean to sound self-centered, but I love my own name, so here is my very feeble attempt at an etymology. I am Karista May Stapleton. I share a last name with the wonderful deceased actress, Maureen Stapleton. Sadly, I'm of no relation. I knew from a very young age that my given name literally means, "the body of Christ," and let me tell you, that has been a lot to live up to. Talk about putting pressure on a child. I've clearly failed abysmally. The May comes from my great-grandmother, May Stapleton, who was also a pretty fiery old broad herself.

32. What is it that you most dislike? I don't like the word "edgy," or anything kitschy in art.

33. What is your greatest regret? Oh, that I have no talent for art and no creative bone in my body.

34. How would you like to die? When I'm ready, and I'd prefer not to know the how, really.

35. What is your motto? Life is what happens while you're busy making plans!