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What work tool can’t you do without? Why?
Pen and paper. Writing is part of how I think. It is almost as if my thoughts must flow through my fingers into words and back through my eyes for a thought to be complete. A keyboard is just as good, but pen and paper can go anywhere without getting damaged or slowing me down at security.
What book are you currently reading?
Fiction? Rosie by Annie Lamott – one of my very most favorite writers. Non-fiction? A book on Moscow – I’m visiting Russia soon and reading about a place before I go makes it that much more fun. I like Rough Guides best.
What’s our best time saving or organizing tip?
I have two of everything I need to travel. Toiletries, etc. I only pack and unpack clothes – the rest is there and waiting when I need to go.
How do you spend airplane time?
It depends on whether I’m going to a gig, or coming home. On the way there, I’m preparing. I redesign the sequencing, consider the best stories to tell that meet the group’s current issues, sometimes, I just think about the people I’m about to serve. If I’m coming home or very tired and need to relax, I have trashy fiction (stuff like Travis McGee novels), CDs, and a meditation eye cover thing that plays water sounds. On rare occasions I will “interview” the person next to me for stories.
What’s your best piece of advice?
To thine own self be true…denying your true nature or your sense of ethics will corrupt any benefit you might gain from the denial. Sometimes behaving yourself is betraying yourself and life is too short. The caveat is that being cruel is never being true to yourself – being cruel or mean or isolating yourself with depression is usually a result of NOT having been true to yourself earlier. Sometimes we have to go backwards and fix bad choices.
What is your favorite destination?
Wherever I’m going next…so for now it is Russia. I loved India and I intend to return. Costa Rica was wonderful for visiting Mother Earth in her kitchen. I like New Orleans because she’s known me since I was a kid. Any road trip in America is delightful for the diners, hiking, weird tourists stops. I loved Dollywood. Any Spanish speaking country since I’m learning Spanish. Oh…and Spain was amazing – particularly southern Spain, flamenco country. And of course Provence was a sensory delight….see? I’m hopeless.
Tell us a little know fact about yourself.
I know all the words to the song from Oklahoma, “Cain’t Say No”
What was your first job?
I sorted magazines by zip code when I was 13. Specifically, the Shreveporter Magazine of Shreveport, Louisiana. My dad wanted me to have the experience of having a job and making my own money so every quarter me and this other kid would spend a whole day sorting magazines. I think it would have been easier to sort the addresses before they went on the magazines…but I never twigged on that until decades later.
What do you think the next big change will be?
I’m praying that the next big change will be (and we might have some evidence it is) a disillusionment with “objective” measures and a resurgence of appreciation for tools and practices that produce unmeasurable but vital results: like trust and faith.
What is your favorite ice breaker? Stress reducer?
Asking questions…I’ll ask something that gives a group the chance to play a bit. Like “what’s your definition of turf war” or “how many of you have gotten in trouble for telling the truth? What happened” I try to ask questions no one else is asking.
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