Work on crafting a personal response to the following questions. Answering them may open up a new space in your mind. They can also provoke interesting conversation; the next time you’re having dinner with friends, pose a question and ask everyone to respond. My response to each issue is in brackets.
- Suppose that every night you tuck a child in bed and speak some phrases before he or she goes to sleep. Compose a phrase or series of phrases that you would want to say to the child every night. [You are safe; you are loved; I will take care of you.]
- What are some things you want to do every year for the rest of your life? [Be on the Queen Mary 2 on its mid-December seven-day transatlantic cruise from London to New York.]
- What is your favorite emotion? [Accomplishment.]
- What have you changed your mind about lately? [I want to live in a small house, not a large one.]
- What harsh truth do you prefer to ignore? [A family member struggles with addiction.]
- To be happy in life we need at least three things: someone to love, something to look forward to, and something meaningful to do. What is your response to these three areas? [I love my family; I look forward to planting a vineyard and building a small house; my work is very meaningful to me.]
- Is it better for a person to have a broad knowledge base or a deep knowledge base? [I like Thomas Huxley’s statement: “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”]
- Why are humans so confident in beliefs that can’t be proven? [We desperately long for answers to difficult questions.]
- What do you think about the organic food movement? [It’s often misrepresented and overvalued.]
- What word do you usually misspell? [awkward]
- What is the proudest moment of your life? [I can’t narrow it down to one moment.]
- What four words would you hope that people would use to describe you? [rational, kind, capable, consistent]
[reminder]Please share your response to some of these questions. [/reminder]
My response is in the braces
or she goes to sleep. Compose a phrase or series of phrases that you would want to say to the child every night. [You are safe; you are loved; I will take care of you.] {I love you, God loves you and we are going to watch over you while you sleep}
• What are some things you want to do every year for the rest of your life? [Be on the Queen Mary 2 on its mid-December seven-day transatlantic cruise from London to New York.] {I would get bus tickets and visit all of the American Civil War battlefields}
• What is your favorite emotion? [Accomplishment.] [happiness}
• What have you changed your mind about lately? [I want to live in a small house, not a large one.] {My wife died in October 2017 and I have decided to seek what God has next in store for my life and ministry}
• What harsh truth do you prefer to ignore? [A family member struggles with addiction.] {Grief}
• To be happy in life we need at least three things: someone to love, something to look forward to, and something meaningful to do. What is your response to these three areas? [I love my family; I look forward to planting a vineyard and building a small house; my work is very meaningful to me.] {I too love my family, I look forward to the day I will have my house cleared out of my dear wife’s stuff and have it rearranged would be meaningful.
• Is it better for a person to have a broad knowledge base or a deep knowledge base? [I like Thomas Huxley’s statement: “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”{Deep and wide, there is a fountain flowing deep and wide.
• Why are humans so confident in beliefs that can’t be proven? [We desperately long for answers to difficult questions.{That is man’s ways, not God’s ways}
• What do you think about the organic food movement? [It’s often misrepresented and overvalued.]{I don’t think about the organic food movement}
• What word do you usually misspell? [awkward] {Chaos}
• What is the proudest moment of your life? [I can’t narrow it down to one moment.] {Ditto}
• What four words would you hope that people would use to describe you? [rational, kind, capable, consistent] {attentive, caring, trustworthy, decisive}
Donald, thanks for taking the time to respond to all the questions. I will pray that you will, in a healthy way, recover from the tremendous loss of your wife six months ago. You have many years of meaningful life in front of you. Don
What four words would you hope that people would use to describe you?
Clarifying
Simplifying
Discerning
and
Accountable
Dwight, thanks for sharing your four key aspirations. I like them. We should be friends. Don