How long have you had your dog and what is your favorite thing about having a dog?
My dog Huxley is two years old. Dogs, and my dog in particular, give unconditional love. They don’t really care about the highs and lows of your day. They just want to be with you.
Why did you pick this breed? Have you had other dogs and, if so, what kind?
This is the second Bernese Mountain Dog we’ve had. They have a calm disposition, they’re big, sweet, handsome, and loyal dogs.
What three things (events, people, places etc.) in your life have influenced you the most?
This is a really tough question, but I’ll give you four:
My close family and friends. (Too many to mention here.) My extensive domestic and international travel. (When I was younger, it was the first vehicle that opened my eyes to the reality of the world outside of the Plato’s Cave in which I was living.) My love for literature, philosophy, and ideas. (Whitman, Kerouac, Melville, Rilke, Wallace Stevens, Plath, Beckett, Franz Wright, and Nietzsche) My insatiable desire to live life to its fullest.
I was trying to think about a moment in my life that captured the responses, and I reflected on my Junior year of high school. That year I played four varsity sports, took two AP classes, took two classes at a local community college because I was trying to accumulate enough credits to graduate high school early, I traveled to Europe for the second time, I traveled to Alaska for the first time, and I was introduced to Walt Whitman for the first time. It was a year where I started to define for myself how I wanted to live my life, challenge my abilities, participate in activities I was passionate about, and learn what kind of intellectual inquiry added value to my life in this world.
What type of music do you listen to?
I like pretty much all types of music. It really depends on my mood. I like Bob Marley, George Strait, Tupac, Sinatra, Eva Cassidy, Al Green, Benyaro, Dave Brubeck, Mendelssohn, Van Morrison, Alison Krauss, and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. They are regulars on my iTunes.
Best movie of all time?