What does your ideal home look like?
My ideal home would be a sprawling log cabin with a few rooms recessed into the earth. You would see ducts for catching the prevailing winds and eavestroughing all around for catching rain. It would have verandahs on three sides and sit behind a circular fire pit. Its colours would be those of the diverse logs’ bark and wood. It would look like a shed.
If you were forced to wear one outfit over and over again, what would it be?
I’d wear a towel and swimming trunks.
How do you waste the most time every day?
I have lived long enough to recognized that when life is very comfortable and everything is on repeat I record accomplishments. On the other hand there is an attachment to serendipity, to the unprogrammed and voluntary connections, the frog-transforming kiss and the back-breaking straw. Let us just say that waiting for charming princesses and their kisses and camels and their straws is definitely wasteful.
Describe one of your favorite moments.
My transition to adulthood was shared with a handful of individuals who are still around. Spending a day or a few hours with one of them creates incredibly satisfying comfort and fans the flame or teenage freedoms and validates the mutual dreams. I often wonder to what extent do adults tag their favorite moments to decades-old memories.
If humans had taglines, what would yours be?
Until the liars open their mouth
Racist victims of racism eat cake and wonder where it went
Goodness gracious, sky is no longer blue
Foxes in the coop will scoop
What are the most important things needed to live a good life?
A good life needs honest outlooks on what makes humans human. Superpowers are sheer fantasy. People need to be genuinely themselves and forget the competition and comparisons.
A good life needs something that draws us towards ideals and reality greater than our ancestral tradition. I call that greater and higher reality divinity; God.
A good life needs an efficient and helpful connection to community. Individuals need social validity reaching from the nuclear family to the village to the city to the nation.
When is the last time you took a risk? How did it work out?
The forecast says it’s going to rain. The thing to do is cancel outings, pack an umbrella, or reschedule appointments. Recently, that is not me. Walking in the rain has rarely resulted in a disaster for me. Yesterday it started to rain, a slight drizzle, as I waited for a bus. I decided not to use the shelter, 15 metres away. Before I could notice whether the rain was intensifying or stopping a motorist offered me a ride. Next time the risk of being soaked by a downpour arises I know what the probabilities are. Dry, wet, ride.
Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.
I am pleased to relate my encounter with someone who I can now call a very well-dressed, well-spoken, and open panhandler. This individual greeted me most warmly and gave me what I thought was a Christian kind of blessing, and then told me that a job was elusive, even though the job sought was part-time, and that hard times were knocking at the door.
Can you help me?
What do you need?
$x for lunch
Follow me to the store and wait, please (wanting to conceal my stash of cash, and determining to give half of what was asked for)
After buying my items at the store I came out with my cash ready and there was the dignified panhandler, waiting. I turned over the amount, wished the panhandler well, and said goodbye.
This encounter is memorable because as I left the scene I felt that I had failed, not delivering what was requested, a simple meal, one meal, instead giving half.
How often does a panhandler say exactly what they want and not get it? Gee! I gotta get better at giving!
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 