Okay, I’ll Play Along
In response to Anna Breslin
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Surrender.
What is your greatest fear?
Surrender.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Lao Tsu, St. Bernadette, Crazy Horse, White Buffalo Calf Woman.
Which living person do you most admire?
My daughter.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
That I don’t fully love myself.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
That which I most deplore in myself.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Green chile.
What is your favorite journey?
I have three favorite journeys among which I cannot pick a favorite. There is the journey from Louisiana to Santa Fe, the trip from New Mexico to Oregon and there is the vision quest I took in the hot desert in which I met one of my other selves.
On what occasion do you lie?
I lie daily to myself.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Thinking.
What is your greatest regret?
Not loving myself when I really needed to.
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
The only thing I can think of is my overall hideousness.
Which living person do you most despise?
Me.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My daughter.
When and where were you happiest?
Those years in the Pacific Northwest when I was a mommy.
Which talent would you most like to have?
To be able to play the violin.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
There are two: Being a mommy and overcoming stage 4 cancer and being told I had no more than 6 months to live (that was 7 years ago).
What is your current state of mind?
A blend of profound utter confusion and enlightened clarity.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My lack of self-love.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
Most assuredly I would come back as a person who had to learn all the things I failed to learn in this current life.
If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
A tree.
What is your most treasured possession?
The frying pan I cook eggs in.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Thinking too much.
Where would you like to live?
In an all-glass house in the middle of the forest with views of snow-capped mountains.
What is your favorite occupation?
Washing dishes.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Obscurity.
What do you most value in your friends?
Simply their presence.
Who are your favorite writers?
Lao Tsu, Tom Robbins, Henry Miller, Marilyn French, Sheradon Bryce, Rumi, Mari Sandoz, Stella Knoxville, Eckhart Tolle, and about 500 others….
Who are your heroes in life?
The ones who make a profound difference without saying a word.
What is it that you most dislike?
Politics and pollution.
How would you like to die?
Sitting on a park bench watching the sunset.
What is your motto?
This, too, shall pass.
(I hope I passed the audition.)
