Two in one day! ...a Q&A

Proust Questionnaire
This is the version of the famous set of interview questions that appears at the back of Vanity Fair every month. It was fun to think through.

Proust Questionnaire (Vanity Fair Version)

Marian's Answers

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Being held in my husband’s arms while enjoying a beautiful sunset.

What is your greatest fear?
That America will never learn to use its intelligence, talent, and bountiful resources for the true betterment of its OWN people.

What historical figure do you most identify with?
I really have no idea……

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Lack of self confidence.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Pettiness

What is your greatest extravagance?
Books, and an occasional pair of shoes (I just got some REALLY nice walking shoes)

What is your favorite journey?
Any airplane ride to somewhere far away.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Piety

What is your greatest regret?
Not learning all my Dad’s stories before he passed..

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My hubby

When and where were you happiest?
I first realized that my (then) husband-to-be really liked me while I was walking in a overnight marathon, and as the sun came up on the mountains I felt so very happy.

What is your current state of mind?
Happily optimistic

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I’d have lots and lots more energy.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
That we’d all get along well enough to get together for a reunion every other year or so.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Endurance through despair – I may go down, but I always come back up.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
I have no idea what it would be, but I would HOPE that it would be a creature – either a wolf, or some other predator.

What is your most treasured possession?
This would have to be the collection of courtship notes that my hubby wrote me during the first year of our relationship -- and then he got them printed in a book for me.

But the opal ring my dad gave me (one that he had made specially for himself in Brazil), and the opal ring my mom bought me (to replace the one she bought me for my 21st b-day that got stolen) are also very close to my heart.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Hopelessness.

Where would you like to live?
Summer home in London. Winter home in either Greece or Spain.

What is your favorite occupation?
Teacher

What is your most marked characteristic?
Helpfulness

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Honesty.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Honesty

What do you most value in your friends?
Thoughtfulness

Who are your favorite writers?
Mercedes Lackey, Jim Butcher, and Anne McCaffrey…so far

What is it that you most dislike?
Lacking the resources to do what I really want to do (whether it’s finances, energy, time, or ability).

How would you like to die?
Quickly and at the same time as my husband.

What is your motto?
Do what you will, but harm none.