Questions

A prisoner on death row is able to invite up to five friends or family members to their execution.  How would you process such an invitation? Who would you invite to your own execution?

Some years back, a couple of friends of mine and I came upon a cat that had been run over by a car. It was vomiting, bleeding, and losing its bowels. The three of us all had radically different feelings – it was clear that if the cat was going to survive, we had to get it to a vet posthaste. The problem was the person who had a car… Read More »“How far would you go to help an injured animal that is not yours?”

I do ask people this question, and I wonder why it matters to me. When I ask white people where they are from, I am just wondering. Maybe they have said something that makes me want to connect with them if I think they are from the Midwest. If I ask a person of color this question I am really wondering what blood makeup they are. Why? Because in my… Read More »“When you meet someone and cannot place their ethnicity, do you ask where they’re from or what they are? Is it important for you to ask? Do you ever think about that being a racist question?”

When I was a freshman in high school, I read somewhere that you either had to be really popular or unpopular to be given a nickname. Seemed true enough to me, and I wanted a nickname. Badly. In English class, we were reading book out loud, and this nerdy, skinny, skittish, black kid with pop-bottle bottom glasses named Scooter said something funny. Everyone busted up. Some kid in class yells,… Read More »“Do you have a nickname?”

I was about seven when I began noticing that my Grandpa, Alvin Bates, chewed snuff. All-day. Everyday. I never asked him about it, but I had questions. When I was about to leave for Texas after college to start my life in 1984, I asked him if I could have a pack of his Red Man tobacco to remember him by. He smiled as he handed it over – I… Read More »“What is the story behind the object that means the most to you?”

If you absolutely had to go for a Guinness Book world record, what would it be?

Where do souls come from? Are there an infinite number of souls waiting to become human, or are they created when a body is created? Are they recycled?