The Five Question Method

Interviews are seldom dull, though they sure can be. Happily, Newscoma came up with 5 questions which I thought were most interesting. Also, I cannot help but monkey with the meme and instead offer any readers here the same chance I have. So, if you are reading this and you would like to answer these same 5 questions in the comments or on your own blog, then please feel most welcome to do so!

1.What was the thing/time in your life that set you on a path of being politically aware? Hmmm. Well, I've often thought about this and the fact that I was always paying too much attention to the world of adults when I was a wee boy. Adults and their world perplexed and fascinated me. But I think it was, more than any other time, the summer of 1968, when I was 7, that I got engaged with politics. It was impossible to escape politics then - riots and protests and assassinations were everywhere you looked. I saw the impact the murders of Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Kennedy had on just about everyone. And then the Chicago Democrat Convention showed me images of troops and police beating the crud out of Americans. That was, I thought, not the way America was meant to be. And it showed me that a person has to take courage and speak their mind on politics, local and national, or one day I would lose my rights. Yeah, I'm a hippie. But that also means I'm hip.


2. What is something about yourself that you would not change and why? Odd but this is connected to the previous question. One thing I would not change is that I still have a child's sense of curiosity and wonder. Some say I am childish. No, no. Not true. I was old when I was younger so it makes sense to me to be younger in my thinking as I get older. Now if I only knew what I was doing, I'd be in tall cotton.


3. If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one book, one movie and one song to play during your time there, what would those three things be? Why? Yeesh. Almost impossible to answer. The book is easy - Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I find new things each time I read it and it is immensely entertaining to me. One movie? Urg. If anything would make be batty it would be to lose access to endless movies. I'm addicted to them. But having only one to watch might just be worse than having none. Could I take two books?? One song? Oh that too would likely drive me bonkers, having only one song to listen to. The best I could do would be to pick just one album and that is Miles Davis Kind of Blue.


4. What is your favorite guilty pleasure? Maybe it was the Baptist upbringing I had - aren't all pleasures guilty ones? My fave? It's my movie addiction. I can't help myself.


5. If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 18 year old self now that you are an adult? Why? I would tell me several things. Perhaps it could proceed as follows: "Joe! Start drinking coffee!! You'll love it, trust me. You can actually make it to your 8 a.m. classes. And since I have your attention, Joe, stop signing up for 8 a.m. classes. Never take a class that starts before 10 a.m. I also know you are thinking about going to work for the Peace Corps. Do it. You'll get to travel and more important in the big picture, helping people to build a clean source for water or teaching them to read and write are some of the best things anyone could accomplish. And here's some shocking info for ya, bucko -- you are going to get old. Plan accordingly. And that girl you like? She's gonna be rich one day and living in Manhattan and she would like for you to be there as the years tick past, so don't be a chickenshit. It may not last forever, but maybe it will. And you are spot on about writing, so hammer away at it even harder. What's that, Joe? You don't need or want advice from old farts like me? Well, you're an old fart now, bucko!. But, yes, the journey is more fun than either of us can know. Now then, fix me a drink and tell me what we're doing tonight."

NOTE: In response to some queries, the header on the post is a variation on The 13 Question Method.