Laura's Interview Questions
Jun. 4th, 2003 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikAnd my answers.
Other than the obvious edible produce, what do you feel you get from gardening?
This is a hard one to answer briefly. But, in increasing order of importance...
a) I get to spend time outdoors doing something moderately active. Which is a good thing in itself.
b) I have a pretty big share of the sentiment common to many in my generation that low tech self sufficiency is a good thing. It doesn't really mean I expect modern civilization to fail, but there is something intellectually satisfying about thinking that I might just be able to get by if it did. (Do I really think I could? Um... Not a simple answer there. Maybe a "yes, if I were lucky". Luck in this instance including a world in decent enough shape that one could garden and forage.)
There is also a much deeper emotional satisfaction with having some things in o;ne's life where one is involved in the process from start to finish. Interdepedence is such an overwhelming feature of our society. And while I'm fond of interdependence, there is something quiet, contemplative and quite satisfying about stepping back from being a a tiny part of a very large system, and being for a while a much larger part of a smaller system.
c) Gardening for me is a ritual behavior as well, and this to some degree encompasses my other two answers. (I say ritual, but I don't mean empty ritual. I mean an action invested with meaning beyond it's direct physical consequences.) When I garden, I am consciously choosing to be more directly under the influence of the weather and the turning of the seasons. I'm actively participating in nurturing life (though not creating it!) selecting what shall live and what shall fail, and finally what shall die to sustain me.
Food and the sharing of food between people is also a matter that interests me greatly. It is so directly a way in which we are connected to the world and eachother. And so gardening also gives me a medium to enact my own convictions -- to eat what is seasonal, to eat what has been grown with environmental sensitivity, to eat food which is not only physically nutritious but also rich in context something which consciously ties me closer to my community and to the land.
You've had to learn to deal with physical pain. What tools do you employ to keep it from taking over your entire life?
The phrase "what tools do you employ" makes it sound like such a considered process. Which it sometimes has been, but more often I react, and only evaluate why I reacted as I did later -- I like to be a considered sort of person, but when I'm in pain that tends to diminish.
The three things that have most governed the ways I've dealt with my injuries have been that I'm an optimist, I absolutely can not deal with being bored, and I'm very stubborn. So I really do believe that somehow or another I'm going to get better -- and while in retrospect that seems obviously, keep in mind that for the first six months I was on medical leave I really didn't improve significantly at all, and I wasn't getting very useful medical advice on how to proceed. But I couldn't just leave it alone, and I couldn't just accept that I was going to be very limited in what I could do. (This is not always a positive trait -- I do try to be sane, but under the right circumstances I could see me doing myself injury by being unwilling to give up on something.)
Oh, somewhere there is a lot of drive to be doing something productive, and feeling like I'm succeeding at something. I'm not necessarily that picky about what -- I have a lot of interests, and I'm not necessarily that wedding to any of them. But if I can't focus on my writing, then I'll focus on my martial arts.
You have listed both polyamory and polyfelinity, as interests. What are the issues to consider in loving more than one cat?
I think the most important thing to remember is that it's not all about you. You might love each cat, and they might sincerely love you, but that doesn't mean they won't have various issues with eachother. It's important not be drawn into their conflicts, on the one hand, but it's also important to support all of you cats, and make sure they feel secure in their relationship with you.
And sometimes you just need to realize that even if it's your chair, if they're hanging out together grooming eachother on it morally their claim is stronger than yours and it's time to find another place to sit.
You once mentioned having interest in being an ambassador. What do you envision that job as being like? What talents would you bring to it, and what waoudl be difficult about it for you?
What attracts me is that idea of helping people communicate with eachother. I've spent a lot of time facilitating negotiations between various parties (I apologize for the buzzword laden vagueness) both personally and professionally, and I find this sort of work very satisfying. Especially in terms of finding or creating common ground between people who have not thought they have a lot of common ground. I don't, as it happens, see this kind of facilitating role as an entirely passive one, nor do I see it as a role that doesn't include scope for my own opinions to be aired. (Though at times you can reach your goal most effectively if you can put your ego on hold.)
In addition to a lot of the work experience I've mentioned, my entirely education was really focused towards training for the foreign services. So I speak Chinese, and a few Central Asian languages, and have a background in political economics, as well as a lot of personal experience dealing with people from different cultures. Throw in a love of travel and I really thought I had a career planned out.
I still haven't entirely written the idea off, but I've become more aware of the drawbacks over the years. I've enjoyed putting down roots, and I like having a strong community around me. I have some reservations about being a woman in the international political sphere (not to mention the dress code...) And I worry about being able to provide stability and community for my family.
How has your life been enriched (or has it) since your retirement? What things can you find yourself spending time on, now that you are at greater liberty to choose?
I'm only partly at greater liberty to choose -- I still have to be very careful how much time I spend on the computer, which has limited the extent to which I can work on my writing. Writing more probably would have been my first answer through most of my life. But I can write, and I am. I've been working on my cooking, my martial arts, spending more time outside and resurrecting such childhood interests as edible and medicinal plant identification.
On another level, though, this is very much a work in progress. I'd put a great many things that had been important parts of my life more or less on hold while I pursued my software career. Now that I have more time and more choices, I'm doing a lot of re-examining my values and my priorities, and through that, my identity. Discovering that Taiji, for instance, has assumed this central place of importance has been a bit of a shock! And then there's the question of children...
Though I'm getting clearer about what I'm doing for the moment, I really don't know where I'm going long term. Ask me again in a few years. (I don't promise to know, but my speculations will at least be more advanced.
Other than the obvious edible produce, what do you feel you get from gardening?
This is a hard one to answer briefly. But, in increasing order of importance...
a) I get to spend time outdoors doing something moderately active. Which is a good thing in itself.
b) I have a pretty big share of the sentiment common to many in my generation that low tech self sufficiency is a good thing. It doesn't really mean I expect modern civilization to fail, but there is something intellectually satisfying about thinking that I might just be able to get by if it did. (Do I really think I could? Um... Not a simple answer there. Maybe a "yes, if I were lucky". Luck in this instance including a world in decent enough shape that one could garden and forage.)
There is also a much deeper emotional satisfaction with having some things in o;ne's life where one is involved in the process from start to finish. Interdepedence is such an overwhelming feature of our society. And while I'm fond of interdependence, there is something quiet, contemplative and quite satisfying about stepping back from being a a tiny part of a very large system, and being for a while a much larger part of a smaller system.
c) Gardening for me is a ritual behavior as well, and this to some degree encompasses my other two answers. (I say ritual, but I don't mean empty ritual. I mean an action invested with meaning beyond it's direct physical consequences.) When I garden, I am consciously choosing to be more directly under the influence of the weather and the turning of the seasons. I'm actively participating in nurturing life (though not creating it!) selecting what shall live and what shall fail, and finally what shall die to sustain me.
Food and the sharing of food between people is also a matter that interests me greatly. It is so directly a way in which we are connected to the world and eachother. And so gardening also gives me a medium to enact my own convictions -- to eat what is seasonal, to eat what has been grown with environmental sensitivity, to eat food which is not only physically nutritious but also rich in context something which consciously ties me closer to my community and to the land.
You've had to learn to deal with physical pain. What tools do you employ to keep it from taking over your entire life?
The phrase "what tools do you employ" makes it sound like such a considered process. Which it sometimes has been, but more often I react, and only evaluate why I reacted as I did later -- I like to be a considered sort of person, but when I'm in pain that tends to diminish.
The three things that have most governed the ways I've dealt with my injuries have been that I'm an optimist, I absolutely can not deal with being bored, and I'm very stubborn. So I really do believe that somehow or another I'm going to get better -- and while in retrospect that seems obviously, keep in mind that for the first six months I was on medical leave I really didn't improve significantly at all, and I wasn't getting very useful medical advice on how to proceed. But I couldn't just leave it alone, and I couldn't just accept that I was going to be very limited in what I could do. (This is not always a positive trait -- I do try to be sane, but under the right circumstances I could see me doing myself injury by being unwilling to give up on something.)
Oh, somewhere there is a lot of drive to be doing something productive, and feeling like I'm succeeding at something. I'm not necessarily that picky about what -- I have a lot of interests, and I'm not necessarily that wedding to any of them. But if I can't focus on my writing, then I'll focus on my martial arts.
You have listed both polyamory and polyfelinity, as interests. What are the issues to consider in loving more than one cat?
I think the most important thing to remember is that it's not all about you. You might love each cat, and they might sincerely love you, but that doesn't mean they won't have various issues with eachother. It's important not be drawn into their conflicts, on the one hand, but it's also important to support all of you cats, and make sure they feel secure in their relationship with you.
And sometimes you just need to realize that even if it's your chair, if they're hanging out together grooming eachother on it morally their claim is stronger than yours and it's time to find another place to sit.
You once mentioned having interest in being an ambassador. What do you envision that job as being like? What talents would you bring to it, and what waoudl be difficult about it for you?
What attracts me is that idea of helping people communicate with eachother. I've spent a lot of time facilitating negotiations between various parties (I apologize for the buzzword laden vagueness) both personally and professionally, and I find this sort of work very satisfying. Especially in terms of finding or creating common ground between people who have not thought they have a lot of common ground. I don't, as it happens, see this kind of facilitating role as an entirely passive one, nor do I see it as a role that doesn't include scope for my own opinions to be aired. (Though at times you can reach your goal most effectively if you can put your ego on hold.)
In addition to a lot of the work experience I've mentioned, my entirely education was really focused towards training for the foreign services. So I speak Chinese, and a few Central Asian languages, and have a background in political economics, as well as a lot of personal experience dealing with people from different cultures. Throw in a love of travel and I really thought I had a career planned out.
I still haven't entirely written the idea off, but I've become more aware of the drawbacks over the years. I've enjoyed putting down roots, and I like having a strong community around me. I have some reservations about being a woman in the international political sphere (not to mention the dress code...) And I worry about being able to provide stability and community for my family.
How has your life been enriched (or has it) since your retirement? What things can you find yourself spending time on, now that you are at greater liberty to choose?
I'm only partly at greater liberty to choose -- I still have to be very careful how much time I spend on the computer, which has limited the extent to which I can work on my writing. Writing more probably would have been my first answer through most of my life. But I can write, and I am. I've been working on my cooking, my martial arts, spending more time outside and resurrecting such childhood interests as edible and medicinal plant identification.
On another level, though, this is very much a work in progress. I'd put a great many things that had been important parts of my life more or less on hold while I pursued my software career. Now that I have more time and more choices, I'm doing a lot of re-examining my values and my priorities, and through that, my identity. Discovering that Taiji, for instance, has assumed this central place of importance has been a bit of a shock! And then there's the question of children...
Though I'm getting clearer about what I'm doing for the moment, I really don't know where I'm going long term. Ask me again in a few years. (I don't promise to know, but my speculations will at least be more advanced.
