Taking a hint and the lead from fellow blogger, Juliette, I’m going to do a few interviews and will post them here. I’m not speaking to anyone who participates in my blog. Perhaps you will find it interesting. Perhaps not. I’m simply throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks. Since Jules and I move in different circles, the people I pick and their reactions to the questions asked may be different than hers.

Name: Janet

Country: USA/Born in Switzerland
City of Residence: McLane, VA
Age and gender: 38
Uniformed military service: U. S. Navy, Commissioned Service (O-3) Nurse, 6 years
Occupation: Mother/former Victoria’s Secret underwear model/former nurse

Formal education: Florida State University, BA

Informal education: Trained by my dog to fetch and carry to keep him happy.


Times married/current status: Once/married

Children: Three girls

Do you believe in God? What is your religion?
Yes/Latter-Day Saint (Mormon)

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
I have this thing about rules. When people make rules that make little sense to me, I break them. If a sign says, “keep off the grass” and I can tell that it hasn’t recently been seeded, I walk across it. If the sign at the outdoor cafe advises me not to feed the birds, I still feed them if they look hungry. If the sign says “wet paint”, sometimes I touch it, just with my pinky finger. 
What is your greatest achievement?
Being able to turn my back on a career to be a stay-at-home mother. No success in life can compensate for failure in the home. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. I wish more women would understand this.

Over the past 12 months, what has been your greatest challenge?

We’ve moved. My husband has a job that causes us to move just about every three years, and that’s a challenge. We moved again this year from Mexico to the USA and my girls are the only ones who seem to be enjoying the change. In Mexico City, I had two maids, a cook and was spoiled by the staff and a social life that revolved around the US Embassy. In Virginia, I am back to being the maid, chief cook, driver (no need for a security staff and armored car in the USA) and bottle washer. 

If you could go back in time to age 20 with your current life experience, what would you do differently?:

I would have hunted down my husband and would have dragged him down like a cheetah taking a gazelle and would have married him then (at age 20). I’ve had a good marriage. Adding a few years to the front end would have been even more fun. (I didn’t know him when I was 20)

There is a 15 year old standing in front of you. What life advice would you give him/her?

Don’t be afraid to break a rule now and then.

When you are an elderly person, sitting in your rocking chair and you look back on your life, what do you want to have achieved?

I want to have lived a life without significant regrets.

What is the meaning of life?

Life is a process of learning. Unless you put your hand on a hot stove from time to time, you’re not learning much. 


RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

14 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder what Juliette's position on this little rule breaking thing of hers in this scenario: She is elderly, rocking gently back and forth in her rocking chair on the porch of her retirement center. A sign is prominent on the premises: "Don't irritate the old people." Along come a group of teenagers who see the sign, and take Juliette's advice given lo these many decades ago, blow off the sign and start irritating the old people.

    I am pretty much a rule follower, BTW. Without rules, there would be chaos, and with chaos the communists would take over. And nobody wants that (except he communists).

  2. The best way to be old is to live in a country setting, surrounded by feral, savage, junk yard dogs. You sit on a porch on a rocking chair with a shotgun on your lap, feeding the dogs pieces of tax collectors when they look hungry.
    At least that's one way of looking at it.

    You should never fight with an old man. If he's too old to fight, he will just kill you where you stand. When any sentence is a death sentence, fear of the law must take on a different scent. The government offers to feed and clothe you until you die. Because you're old and infirm, you live in the prison hospital and hope that they don't mix you up with an inmate undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

  3. I think some rules should be broken, like the rule that we have to call "Chelsea" Manning "she." That's obviously a bad rule and we'd be morally wrong to obey it.

  4. On rules like those, we should string up those that made rules like those by their toes and then shoot them liberally using rock salt loads out of 12 gauge shotguns. And then pretend that those rules were never issued.

  6. Janet's point is that one should question authority, not necessarily "break rules". Part of the problem may be with the interviewer and framing the question poorly. As a former naval officer, she is a rule keeper. But I think that she feels that walking in step simply because somebody makes a rule is a dangerous practice.

  9. Interesting woman, I like the notion that she would have hunted down and captured her husband earlier. A shield maiden, from the sound of it!

  14. I like her. A lot. I'm with her every step on the rule breaking and the hand that rocks the cradle. Top woman.

Comments are closed.