news&views Winter 2019 | Page 40

Proust Questionnaire Vi Oko | Chair, Strategic Planning & Advocacy Vi Oko Responds to a Proust Questionnaire 1. What do you appreciate most in your friends? I appreciate the fact that my friends have strong moral principles by which they conduct their lives and in their relationship with others. They are not pretentious and have no desire to give the impression that they are superior in any way. 2. What is your idea of happiness? Happiness is spending a special occasion, for example, a birthday or Christmas, surrounded by my family. 3. How do you fi nd meaning in life? I fi nd meaning in life by trying to be the best grandmother I can be and doing more than my share. I pride myself in my relationship with all my grandchildren. Although they acknowledge that I am certainly diff erent from most grandmothers, they can also count on me, whether it is to pick up the telephone during the night when they call from Spain because they have had an upsetting experience that morning, or to play a game of tag with the younger ones shortly after my arrival. I believe in paying things forward, so if I do more than my share now, it may pay dividends later in my life when I may be in need of some help. 4. Which talent would you most like to have? I am in awe of anyone who can sing or play a musical instrument, neither of which I can do. I have a recurring nightmare in which my teaching assignment requires that I teach music. 5. What is your motto? “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” It has been said that if you do not have time to do it right, you must have the time to do it over. 40 | arta.net Doing something well gives the doer a sense of pride, even if no one is watching. Something as simple as stepping back to view a freshly painted wall at 2:00 a.m., knowing that it does not need to be repainted, can result in an overwhelming feeling of achievement. Apparently, this attribute is consistent with my astrological sign. ●