Interview

Want to get interviewed? Here's the idea:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

I found this on a friend's blog, and she gave me five questions to answer. Here they are, with my answers:

ELIM'S INTERVIEW

1) If your life (so far) was being made into a movie, who would play you? Why? Please feel free to fill in other parts of the cast.
Topher Grace (the guy who played Eric in That 70s Show) would play me because he's awkward yet charming.

2) Name a book/tv program/website (etc.) that you've read/watched that has affected the way you see the world. Please describe how.
The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren. Although it's the third book in the A New Kind of Christian trilogy, it was my first encounter with it. I read it in the fall of 2005. It looks at some things like hell, heaven, God's grace, etc. from more of a postmodern perspective than what I was used to. Some of it discusses what things in modern Christianity actually come from Christ and the Bible, and what comes from modern society. This book and other stuff like it have helped me see Christianity in terms that seem more realistic to me and help me see the good in Christianity when I tend to also notice negative things that seem to come from Christianity (like judgmental attitudes).

Maybe that's a little vague, but it is kind of hard to describe.

3) Tell me about something that's been really important in your life lately.
I've been given more responsibility with my church's youth group (for people in junior high and high school) recently. I think this is helping develop my leadership skills and become less indecisive. And when it comes to helping teens in their spiritual lives, I'm seeing more clearly that I can't just fix all their problems, let alone my own problems. (I knew this before, but I think I understand it better now, if that makes sense.) I do believe it's important to be honest without being cynical, and I think this is all pushing me to trust God more. It also helps me appreciate the other people I work with in this, who each have their own unique experiences and gifts that each help in unique ways.

I don't know if some of that comes across as discouraging or hopeless, but I don't mean for it to be. If anything I'm encouraged and hopeful about this.

4) Name one thing you want to do before you're 30, two things you want to do between the ages of 30 and 45, and three things you want to do after the age of 65.
This one's hard. I haven't set very clear goals for these age ranges, but there are lots of things I'd like to do. There may be some personal things that I'd rather not post on a blog. But here are a few ideas.
Before 30: Get reasonably good at a competitive sport.
Between 30 and 45: Become a dad. Visit Antarctica.
After 65: Ski. (I ski now, and I hope I can still do that when I'm old.) Visit every continent that I haven't visited yet. Live to 100 with a fully-functioning brain.

I'm not too sure about the age ranges for some of these things. For example, if I visit every continent or if I'm a dad before I'm 30, I won't complain. I don't want to reach the age of 100 before I turn 30 though.

5) And our Canadiana for the day.... If Ben Mulroney and Justin Trudeau were in a kraft dinner cookoff (when everyone brings a pot of kraft dinner with his/her favourite alterations, like adding tuna or salsa)
a) what do you think each of them would make
b) who do you think would win?
a) Ben Mulroney would add tuna that was caught just off the coast of Canada (if tuna come anywhere near Canada, I'm not a marine biologist), because--like Canadian Idol--he'd just take someone else's idea (in this case, yours) and make it more Canadian. Justin Trudeau would add some organically grown, locally grown spinach and tomatoes (grown by a bilingual farmer). He'd probably add a spice of some sort, if he could find something organic and locally grown.
b) Depends on how cynical I'm feeling.

(Have I proven that I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to these two people's lives?)