So much of our conversation is routine that we often find ourselves saying the same things day after day . . .but what if you’re in the hot seat? With this column we give our interviewees two minutes to think and one minute to speak their answer . . .  with no advance warning of what the questions might be. How would *you* do in the hotseat?

 Question 1: If you had never had children would your life be more interesting or less interesting than now?

Answer: It’s funny, I immediately think, “less interesting”. The only reason I just can’t tell you is that I’ve been a Mom since I was a teenager, I don’t even know, I have no frame of reference. Okay, let’s just put it this way, it might be more interesting, but I don’t think it would be as fulfilling, I really don’t. 

Question 2: This is a logic of ethics question from an old ethics class. It’s long, so bear with me. The facts are this:

A man’s wife has cancer, she completes 18 rounds of a drug that will cure here, but if she doesn’t get the 19th round she will die. The husband got laid off because of the pandemic, and although he has always paid for everything, the pharmacist will not give him the 19th round on credit. The man offers to work for the pharmacist to work it off, but the pharmacist says no, it’s cash or nothing. Left with no choice, the man breaks into the pharmacy late at night to steal the medicine. Unfortunately, it is the night the pharmacist stays late to do billing, and he confronts the man, and threatens to call the police. The man knows if he is arrested his wife won’t get the drug in time, and will die. A struggle ensues, and the pharmacist is killed. If you were on the jury would you vote to convict the man of murder?

Answer: Hmmmm.  This is like “Crime and Punishment”, my logical brain is saying yes, not because of all the heartfelt stuff but because of the fact is that he did commit a murder, in my mind, he did commit the crime. He did do it.  So, yes.

Question 3: Given the same set of facts, what do you see as another solution to the husband’s problem? 

Answer: I see many solutions. Asking other people for help, selling things, there are so many ways to have done this long before he got to breaking into the pharmacy. 

Question 4: What is the cruelest thing  you’ve ever said to someone, and do you regret saying it now? 

Answer: Yeah, I . . .it’s fine, I do want to answer it [I offered to let her skip this question] . . .it’s must one of those things . . .I told my ex-husband that I didn’t love him and I never had. The point was that he wouldn’t leave me alone and he wouldn’t respect what I was trying to get away from. I would kick him out and he would keep coming back. I told him finally, “I don’t love you and I never have”. It wasn’t true, it was so cruel, and yes, I do regret it, yeah . . .. 

Question 5: What is the meanest thing someone ever said to you and did you have a retort at the time? 

Answer: I can’t even think of anything. Let me take my two minutes and think. . . .It could be that I just don’t remember . . .Yeah, I am drawing a blank, I can’t think of a thing.

Question 6: Have you ever considered joining a religious order? 

Answer: I *have* joined . . .I was baptized when I was, gosh, 20 something at Grace Community Church; and I did their lights and their sound. I was looking for something and they gave me something at the time. Eventually I realized it wasn’t for me, but I was pretty deeply into it for a little while. Currently, I am looking more deeply into Buddhism.

Question 7: What is the strangest belief you hold now by conventional society’s judgment?

Answer: That there is no good and there is no bad it only just is. And I know that is partly Buddhism but I believed that before I was looking into Buddhism. I’ve held the conversation with people where they say, what about child molesters, and I say, well, yeah, we say that we wouldn’t do that, but in my point of view, that . . .it just is. 

So that’s our seven questions for this week, and I want to thank Jeanette for being willing to let me experiment on her! If you think you’d like to be interviewed for 7 questions in 7 minutes, please email me at 7minutes7questions@gmail.com