The Great Interview Experiment

Neil at Citizen Of The Month, states "Everyone is somebody". His brain child was to set in motion a perpetual interview amongst any and all bloggers that want to participate. Simply leave a comment on his post explaining his experiment, and you will be paired with the next person to interview. He calls it The Great Interview Experiment.

I was pleased to be interviewing Katherine from Passions at Play. After pilfering through her archive, getting to know a little about her, I sent her 10 questions. Enjoy, and be sure to visit her interesting blog.

01) Your bedroom has no windows. Please describe what you have on the walls and what types of lighting you use in there. What is the theme or colors?

The walls are white and I have a couple of posters up on the walls. There is not a huge amount of wall space as I have several bookshelves – I love books. There isn’t really a theme. Lighting consists of 3 bedside lamps and one on my dressing table. I am rarely in my bedroom unless it’s getting dressed or sleeping so it really is not a room I put much thought into. My bed though is huge and very comfortable.

02) What was the initial motivation to pursue The Passion Project Radio Show? Who would you love to have as a guest if all options were open?

I enjoy using my voice and have always thought it is my most effective way to communicate. I feel I am on a mission to inspire everyone to follow their passion as I think it is a tragedy to live your whole life working a job you hate. Other than the rather clichéd choices of my heroes Oprah and Nelson Mandela, I would bring back from the dead Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy amongst other books because I want to talk to him about the new phenomena of Skype Time which is I believe a new dimension.

03) If you could change one single event in all of history, which would you choose and why?

I couldn’t even start to choose because there are so many atrocities and also because who knows what good things would also be altered. I am not convinced that everything happens for a reason but I do believe we can find reasons in everything that happens. There’s a wonderful book by Stephen Fry called Making History which is a fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had never been born.

04) What book would you like every man, woman and child to read at least once in their lifetime? Why?

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Not only is it one of the mostly beautifully written books ever in my opinion but it shows that whatever our circumstance we still get to choose how we think, how we react to a situation. We can have the ability to move anything but our eyelids taken away from us and we can still travel the world in our head and to write a masterpiece one blink at a time.

05) Part of your New Year's resolution is to be present more with your children. How is that coming along? What changes have you made?

Sometimes it is making sure to limit my computer time. But mostly it has been about really listening to them and resisting being the teacher ALL the time.

06) When asked to bring a dish to pass, what do most hosts expect you'll bring? If you care to, share your recipe.

I haven’t been to one of these in years so I have no idea! I do make a lovely dish which is basically homemade macaroni and cheese with chicken and broccoli.

07)You've been lucky to have lived in England, the Netherlands, Spain , and the USA. Were these job related? Where do you hope to be living when you retire?

I was born in England, lived in the Netherlands when my father’s job transferred us there, I au paired (live-in nanny) in Spain and moved to the US with my then husband who is American. I think I will retire either somewhere very temperate or back to England though it may well depend on where my kids are as I would love to be a grandmother who is active in her grandchildren’s life (that sounds so weird to think of myself as a grandmother)

08) Your blogs archives start October, 2007. Is this your first blog? How much time do you spend a week writing and reading other blogs?

I have written other blogs before but this is the first one that I have really kept up with. I spend an hour or two writing and at least twice that reading other blogs. One of things that really helped me to get started and to write regularly as I am not a writer was to not worry about the word count. I just say what I have to say and if it’s 150 words or 600 it doesn’t matter.

09) Do you have a family tradition that you have continued with your children or one that you have started for them?

When we sit down for dinner in the evening we go around the table and talk about things we are grateful for. Otherwise I am not really that big on tradition.

10) If you were given the opportunity to give someone an opportunity, no limits, what kind of person would you seek out to help, and how would you help them?

This one is easy for me – it would be anyone who really wants to live their passion. I am not sure I would want to help one person out TOO much as I think we learn the most in the struggle so if I can cheat I would spread the help over lots of people -financially so they get some breathing room, supporting them, finding mentors for them and really giving them the belief that they can do it.

Thank you Katherine. I enjoyed your answers and reading through your blog.