Q & A from Hannah McCrane

Q & A

from Hannah McCrane

 

Well, that didn’t take long! As soon as I published my last post, I got seven questions from Facebook friends in less than an hour.

 

Here are two of Hannah McCrane’s questions (she says she’ll send more) and my answers.

 

Who are your heroes?

Oh, wow!  This is going to be a long list, and even then, it will be incomplete!

 

My political and judicial heroes (past and present) include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M Kennedy, Senator George McGovern, ex-President Jimmy Carter,  Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Texas Governor Ann Richards,  Congressman John Lewis, Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.

 

My literary hero is Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

 

My personal non-family heroes (people who “rescued” me in one way or another) include Mary Jane Cooper (my baseball coach when I was a kid), junior high English teacher Alpha Rossetti (who encouraged my writing, told me the truth when I got out of line, and got me a two year subscription to THE WRITER magazine since she knew my parents couldn’t afford to), high school teachers Walter Dobbs and Todd Oleson, Ted Crail (Creative Services Director at the Animal Protection Institute, where I served for four years; he was on my butt all the time telling me to do MORE with my writing than just writing for API– “you’re a helluva writer!”), DeForest Kelley, Lisa Twining, Edward Smith, Teryl McLane (her dedication and inestimable contributions to Scholastic Book Fairs, one of the best companies on the planet, inspires me, plus she’s a terrific human being all on her own!), Nancy Graf and Scott Vorhees (two of the finest, “funnest” people I worked with at the Animal Protection Institute in the 1980’s), and my Cle Elum classmate “cheerleaders”. I’m sure I’m forgetting others right now.  I’ll come back and add them as they occur to me again. (Yep. Heidi Smith and Chris Bailey are two more of my personal heroes for overcoming their personal and professional challenges to become exemplary human beings and contributors to the wellbeing of others and the planet.) (Cooper Spc. of PFLAG.)

 

 

Additional unsung heroes: first responders, front line essential workers, single parents, animal and political activists and advocates, LGBTQI individuals who help others embrace their own truths… I could go on and on.

 

I’ve read literally thousands of books and all of the authors are heroes of mine, of sorts, especially Jan Morris (who wrote Conundrum, the first book I ever read about transgenderism).

 

What are some hobbies that we don’t know about, and why do you like them?

 

Whenever I’m not writing or hanging with my friends or critters, I love to read. That’s my all-time favorite pastime/hobby.  In my next blog post, I will be listing some of the books I’ve read so far this year, because someone asked me what I’ve been reading.

 

I like reading because I get to vicariously live other people’s lives or enter their imaginations. It’s true that readers live thousands of lives, not just one.  I can’t imagine what being a non-reader must be like, and I never want to find out! I think I’d be miserable if I didn’t have the blessed companionship of other voices, thoughts and hearts.

 

I have been known to buy paint-by-numbers and adult coloring books to wind down and exercise my fine art skills. Lisa got me a fractal goats coloring book for Christmas last year. I picked the hardest one to do first and just about killed her for buying it for me. But the remaining images are a lot easier, so I relented and will probably even thank her again for it someday.

 

I love watching the fish swim around in my aquarium to see how they interact, feed, rest, and play.

 

I used to be quite the puppeteer when I was a kid. I became very shy by the time I was six or seven. (I was a real cut up before then, so my parents “tamed” me, ham-handedly, and I began to feel like I should just disappear, so I pretty much did.)

 

I didn’t like to be noticed or pointed out in public after I was corrected for being a firecracker, but I loved being a puppeteer because I could be creative and heard while hidden completely out of sight.  (That’s probably why I love being a writer, too.  “Writing is show business for shy people.”)

 

I don’t like to cook, bake, sew, knit or crochet.  I love working with my hands, but not in those ways.

 

But dog houses, bird houses, porches, platforms, cages, and even buildings? I’ve done all of that and more. I’m a true guy.  I loved being a rancher and farmer when I lived in Cle Elum. Mowing the fields, feeding the cattle and horses… I was in heaven!

 

I think that’s pretty much the list of my hobbies, past and present.