Here's a new (to me) meme/tag game. Miss Mellifluous has "interviewed" me....
1) Imagine you are a fabulously talented musician (or maybe you are already?) what instrument do you play and which already famous musos from any era are in your band with you?
I play piano and violin, but I'm not fabulously talented. However, the most fun I have had in musical terms was orchestral playing. I would be happy to be buried in the violin section of any symphony orchestra working my way through some of the well-worn classical repertoire - preferably with a bunch of the people I have known throughout my life. As far as conductors and soloists were concerned, to be honest, any who don't allow their egos to get in the way of the music.
In terms of non-orchestral music, I would love to have been part of Talking Heads, and you can tell from my blog that I'm addicted to U2 and Sixpence None the Richer. But as with all the best groups, the chemistry in them worked so well that the whole was more than the sum of the parts. I'd rather sit in the audience and listen to any of them than pick and choose musicians.
But if I were fabulously talented, and could choose who to work with ... I think it would be Sixpence.
2) Tell us about your best holiday ever and what made it so fantastic.
I think it was probably staying as a family in Florianópolis, Brazil with Andrew and Cora. I'm not big on holidays where you are living in a self-absorbed bubble. We spent the best part of two weeks there, meeting the Christians amongst whom they were live and work. We went to their house church. I even went to one of the evening classes that Andrew took (though it was in Portuguese - I can't even remember what the course was, let alone any of the content!).
In addition to which, it was the closest I have ever stayed to the Equator (although the weather was rarely seriously hot), Santa Catarina Island is unsurprisingly surrounded by lovely beaches - ranging from the surfy to the toddler-friendly - it has a civic park and various historical sites, shopping malls, and a spectacular bridge.
We are waiting for the opportunity to go again - we really want to visit the Iguaçu falls next time!
3) Who has been the most influential person in your life and why?
It's a bit boring and predictable, but it's Jesus. Not only directly, through the Bible, but indirectly, in that most of the people who are "secondary influences" would also say that it was Jesus who most influenced them.
I suppose if I were to pick one other key influencer, it would probably be Francis Schaeffer. At a time when evangelicalism was starting to become notorious for its lack of thought, Francis Schaeffer was presenting a case for Christianity that was intellectually solid and yet which engaged with real people. Schaeffer has influenced Christians in all sorts of ways - in their approach to the Bible, to church, to philosophy, to culture. He established "L'Abri" in Switzerland (there are several others around the world) as a place where Christianity was to be lived out. A stay in L'Abri is another "holiday" I would like to take at some stage.
4) Which one word would you eradicate from the English language if you could?
The word - not the concept? So if I get rid of "pain", pain itself doesn't disappear, and we just need a new label for it? I am just trying to get rid of an aesthetic carbuncle on the face of the English language?
How about "function"? Or "globule"?
5) If you could have coffee with God and could ask Him one question this side of heaven, what would it be?
I suspect it would be scientific rather than ethical. Scientists have been chasing the idea that there is a "grand unified theory" - a scientific concept that will allow them to draw together all different strands of physical science. I would love to know whether there is a unifying principle other than God - whether it is possible to derive everything in the universe from a single concept, or from a very small set of concepts.
This being a tag game, let me know if you are prepared to be "interviewed". It's just for fun, and I decide the questions!
