Nissue #52: Are we fiNished yet?
When I started In Search Of Lost Answers, my goal was roughly the same as the U.S.S. Enterprise’s: “To explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.” While I did not leave Earth’s orbit, I do think I accomplished my own version of that nission.
Inspired by Alain de Botton and using a hybrid of Marcel Proust’s infamous questionnaire intermixed with my own questions, I sought out answers — and got them — from a year’s worth of personalities, both familiar and new:
17 Founders
13 Authors/Journalists
7 Artists/Designers
4 Musicians
3 Restauranteurs/Chefs
2 Best Pals
1 Olympic Athlete
1 College President (go Union!), and
1 Mayor (of the town where we live)
1 Wife (my own)
1 Dad (my own)
1 Mom (my own)
So why stop? I sort of explained that in Nissue #51. Who knows, maybe I will seek out more answers in some other form (ask me about my Top 10 Albums project some time). Maybe I will find some other outlet to stay connected. As Danny Zuko once said, “It’s not the end. It’s only the beginning.”
So thank you Marcel Proust for writing In Search Of Lost Time in the first place. And thank you Alain de Botton for your book How Proust Can Change Your Life, it most certainly changed mine.
— Nish, March 2022.
P.S. For those of you who have read this far and/or followed along with each nissue, you know that I asked each guest about the theme song to their professional life. The answers were so fun that I created a playlist, please give it a listen!
P.P.S. If you missed it above, this is a good summary of what inspired me to begin this interview series.
P.P.P.S. I wanted to thank Jane Nadaraja for her constant support and ideas, Laura North for her editing, and Michael Ernst, for designing the logo for In Search Of Lost Answers.