| What is your most memorable childhood experience? | One of my earliest and most vivid experiences was my grandfather’s telling me how to put a tractor in gear. As a child, I loved planes, trains, and automobiles, anything mechanical. (In my youth, I would work on a fair share of them with him in his garage, one of many he built.) Anyhow, I was between 2.5 and 5, when I started the thing and managed to do it myself. (I remember the doing, but not my specific age, which I didn’t care about at the time.) I put the thing in reverse, and he came running out the house. There was much talk and excitement. Given his instruction, there probably should’ve been less surprise. |
| What immediate family member do you closely identify with and why? | My grandfather was a man of calm deliberation, a homegrown engineer who taught himself calculus, a solver of problems both practical and moral. Born in the country of our heartland (America’s Midwest), he regaled me with stories of his youth, how he went from farming and running ten miles a few times a week for Golden Gloves boxing, so as to outdo his father (who had fought a world heavyweight champion), to being stationed on Iwo Jima and getting shot at on one of the runways there. He later explored Iwo Jima, where he found a cave filled with sake and fisheye soup. He’d eventually work as a mechanic, fixing multi-ton engines and machines for mining. He’d take up residence on many hundred acres of forest around a lake with no public access. He built his own house, made his own tractors, wood splitters, docks, etc. Like I said at the start of this paragraph, though, he wasn’t just handy, he had an intellectual bent. For example, he once borrowed a few of the philosophy texts I was reading in graduate school. What’s more, he actually read them. Anyhow, he could carry on conversation like no tomorrow (tomorrows aren’t very good at that), and every morrow would find yet another bunch of visitors, daily seekers looking to benefit from either his wisdom or experience. Some came from across the country. Some included past governors. Others had ties to prohibition era gangsters. They all liked fishing. I identify with him because there is great overlap of personality, ability, and disposition between us. As he said, “Out of all [his] kids and grandkids, [I am] the most like [him].” My IQ is high, by a few standard deviations above the mean. I delight in understanding how the world works. I am adept at coming up with new things, at least in thought. And I hold friendships with people who are historically important - prominent philosophers, psychologists, and authors. |
| What character traits do you admire in an individual? | I admire all the good ones: intelligence, consideration, circumspection, magnanimity, capacity to empathize, originality, physical ability, foresight, forethought, capacity to empathize, understanding, being knowledgeable, kindness, trustworthiness, integrity, pragmatism, truthfulness, ability to deceive without being deluded yourself, narrowness, expansiveness; I love a warm heart that pumps cold blood, a fountain that bubbles with mirth, or good humor, under the fine spray of all the virtues, a biological engine powered variously by emotional, physical, or intellectual excellence. Above all, I like people who know their strengths and weaknesses. People who share their strengths, while not burdening us with their weaknesses. People who stand when they should but know when to sit. I like people who create beyond themselves. I don’t like people who would consign us to failure, mean spirits who want destruction instead of growth. Success is best. Trying is next. Holding others back is the worst. |
| What is the funniest thing ever to happen to you? | I met my spouse in a psychology of women course. |
| If time and money were not an issue, where would you travel and why? | I would travel to the great institutions of the world. There are very many interesting people where they are, and they are usually not far from places that are independently travel-worthy. For example, near to Oxford University is a pub that has working plumbing from the 18th century. How neat is that? Anyhow, with the small price of a car rental and a little time, the world’s institutions are not far from its tourist sights. Frugality is a virtue, and there is always something to be said for conservation, when it comes to maximizing cost to effect in a pool of seemingly unlimited resources. Just as a sentence in a piece of fiction can advance plot, character development, and theme, say all at once through a bit of foreshadowing, good locations can serve a variety of interests, by providing beautiful sights, great restaurants, historical buildings, et cetera. |
| When and if you ever have children, what would you like to pass on to them? | I would like most to be able to pass on my intelligence, creativity, and ability to commit to a series of small plans that add up to big accomplishments over the long haul. I am very conscientious: I’m not the person who speeds up or slows down with you, while you are entering or exiting a freeway; I do the opposite, and rarely do I not gently close a cabinet when I make coffee if there are sleepers about, and rarely do I tread, physically or metaphorically, in a way that produces unwanted sound. I gauge the effect of my thoughts and actions. This is useful not only in decreasing the amount of pain, suffering, or agitation that I cause: being a good judge of how unique groups and individuals react to what I do is a great help in achieving the common goal of having others work with rather than against one. I’d like to pass that on as well. |
