Interview

So I was contacted by Peter Mansbridge to be interviewed for his One on One series. What? It wasn't Peter Mansbridge? Alright, almost as good, Morena tagged me in an interview meme. Rules are simple, answer five questions posed by the tagger, create five of your own and tag five others.

First my questions:

1. What is your dream vacation if money was no object?

If money was no object? The world.  I mean really, there is so much to see, so many interesting and intriguing places why stop at one place.  Although I'd tend to hit the natural areas first. I suppose if it had to be one spot that would be more difficult to narrow down. I've been lucky enough to visit some of my dream spots, the Galapagos Islands, a small corner of the Amazon jungle, Antarctica.  I'd like to see parts of Africa. Otavango, South Africa, or Tanzania for example. I'd like to see Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and China for that matter.  And I've always dreamed of seeing Pit Cairn Island.

I'd love to see every bird on earth, and if money was no object that would be a possibility.  I'm not sure if I'm cut of the cloth to be a big lister though. Still seeing them all would be cool.  I'd probably be played by Jack Black in that movie. Although I'd really prefer Steve Martin.

But I'm still waffling. So here it is.  I'd like to start off by retrieving our boat, the M.V. Fort Hearne and doing the Northwest Passage.  I'd continue down the Atlantic Coast and pick up a 44 foot Island Packet Yacht and sail the seven seas, circumnavigating the world, lingering in the South Pacific. I think I'd take the Panama Canal, then turn south and round Cape Horn before heading back north.  In Vancouver, or Victoria I'd sell the Island Packet, then buy a good sturdy 40 footish (feetish? fetish?) steel twin screwed boat, and motor through the rest of the Northwest Passage, continuing on home to Arctic Bay.

I assume that if money was no object I would have already made several trips back to Manitoba to visit my family. And really, money would have to be no object to do that on First Air's fares.

2. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

I'm not sure I would. I rather like myself now. Not in a vainglorious or narcissistic way, but I'm comfortable with who I am.  Certainly there are aspects of me that need improvement, but I'm old (wise?) enough to recognize that those are often the other side of aspects of me that I really like.

My biggest self perceived fault is that I'm an extreme procrastinator. Extreme. I've found myself putting things off that I was well aware were going to bite me hard because of it. And although I recognized that I was doing it I seem incapable of stopping it. But, and this is a big but, I also recognize that the parts of me that make me put things off, are also aspects of things about me that I like a lot. I'm easily distracted, there is always something shiny pulling me this way and that. That couples with a curiousity about the world around me. And I'm relaxed, I take a lot of what the world sends my way in stride.

Change my procrastination, and you might change the other parts, and they are a part of me that I really like, so I'm not sure if the risk is worth it.

3. If you could visit a time in history, when would it be and why?

One time? Am I invincible in that time?

A bit of recent history I'd love to visit is South Africa at the end of Apartheid.  For the purely personal reason of meeting Nelson Mandela. But farther back I'd like to have been around in Britain about a hundred and fifty years ago.  Again to meet someone, long gone. I'd have loved to have the opportunity to meet Charles Darwin, after or a little before On the Origin of Species was published. And if T.H. Huxley was hanging about all the better. 

4. What is your favorite thing about the place you live?

Setting aside that my loves, my wife and children are here, there are several things about it I love. One is the sense of community here, it reminds me of home when I was growing up.  This is a place where people get together, for play and feasts. Where they'll drive 10 hours by snowmobile, to camp beside each other and fish. I like that.  Just this friday there was a birthday celebration for our eldest elder, Qapiq. Her 90th birthday was held at the community hall, with a feast and games. 

I also love the beauty of this place. It often leaves me breathless, and constantly changes in the ever changing light.  Last night, for example, I marveled at the view down Adam's Sound from the road from Victor Bay above town. I'm not sure if I said it out loud, or in my head, but I said "Man this is a beautiful spot." Probably out loud.

But probably, more than anything else, it is the uniqueness of this place that appeals to me. Since my youth I cultivated being different. Not orange hair, bone through my nose different, or crazy different (although there are some who might argue that point), but I didn't want to like what everyone else liked, or experience the same things that everyone else did. I like having adventures, I like experiencing things that only a few people experience.

This is a place like that, only a few people live where the sun doesn't set for 3 months, where you can look out your front door and see Narwhal and Killer Whales. Where the birds don't all migrate south, but some migrate through Europe and into Africa. It allows me to be slightly unique (and I realize it is only slightly), and has given me access to people and events I would not otherwise have. I mean really, how otherwise would I get to have a conversation with Dan Rather, about going into space.

5. What do you think would be the worst job in the world?

For me? I often admire people that do jobs that I couldn't/wouldn't. So in that sense I think that most jobs have value, often more value than whatever I'm doing.  I think that for me, a job that would be endlessly repetitive would be the worse. Not necessarily the type of job that Mike Rowe would choose, but something that involved the same, small task, over and over.  I would probably not make a very good widgit inspector at the Acme Widget Works. 

So that's it.  I often don't tag anyone on the meme's I play, but in this case I shall.  Seeing this has mostly bounced around the northern blogosphere, I'll move it into another sphere of influence.  I'll tag, Seabrooke, Debby, Susannah, Dave, and Pete. Whether they'll play or not is, of course, up to them, but you should take the opportunity to visit them as they are always worth a read.

And my questions for them are:

1) You seem to have an intense curiousity of the natural world, how did that curiousity come about?

2) What would you change about your home, your neighbourhood, your corner of the world? What one thing would you change to make it a better place?

3) Describe your most profound encounter in the natural world?

4) If you could have a conversation with any person in history who would it be, and why that person?

5) What advice would you give to anyone wanting to better experience the natural world?