PAST ISSUES

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Issue No. 7 QUESTIONS

For the Questions issue we are turning our focus from the outside world and bringing it inward. Each day for 100 days we will step out into the world and meet with one person. We will ask each person we meet the same 12 questions. At the end of 100 days we hope to capture our collective voice within this interwoven web of dialog.

Day 68: Preston Gerald Kear

What do you do for a living?

I do a lot of things: sales, service – I have a humidity control service business. We install panels that absorb moisture, odors, bacteria and ethylene gas. They give you a longer shelf life for your produce, conserve energy and they’re all natural. We install them in schools, walk-in coolers, on ceilings…

What do you do to feel alive?

For me, since I get up early in the morning, I usually say a prayer to my lord savior Jesus Christ and just move on through the day.

A lesson you learned from your mother:

One of the lessons that I really learned is that I never asked my mother a question because I don’t want to really know. In other words, I learned if you want the long answer ask your mom – so I never asked her because I usually didn’t want to know much about it.

A lesson you learned from your father:

My dad said there are only two things in life that will get you in trouble: women and cars.

What’s the most beautiful thing you saw today?

I think it was actually the sky early this morning along with breeze blowing.

What’s one thing you wouldn’t want anyone to take away from you?

First off, in light of the tragedy in Connecticut, it would be my family. The only other thing would be my freedom, but they would have to kill me for that.

What’s a thought you would like to never have again?

I’ve had a lot of those thoughts. I guess there’s one thought – an image – that been in my mind since the early 90s of an Iraqi Kurd child that was gassed by Saddam Hussein. I can still see the image of this child along with her dead mother.

If you could become an inanimate object what would it be?

I would probably just be a rock.

When do you feel most loved?

I’m never really searching for love, but when I give love is probably when I feel the most loved.

If your life were to end tomorrow what would be left undone?

Getting back to my ideal weight of about a buck 65 and being able to do another back flip from my gymnast days.

What global issue would you take on if you didn’t have to worry about how?

There would be a few of them, but I really don’t know how to phrase it. It’s really simple coming from an East Tennessee perspective: “If you ain’t got nothing it’s your own damn fault.” You know, it’s like you’re what you are and where you are by what’s going through your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by what’s going through your mind. It’s like Zig Zigger said: “Every now and then you can find a good biscuit in a garbage can, but that ain’t the place to look.”

What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was a dream that my father left me.