“The Last Word” Credit: Men’s Journal
Anyone who knows me well knows that one of my very favorite drinks is called “The Last Word”. It’s also a huge source of frustration because so few bars, however hifalutin and pretentious, can make a decent one. But this is not an essay on drinking. Far from it. “The Last Word” is the running series on the last page of each issue of Men’s Journal in which an older male celebrity is asked to answer a series of questions about life. There’s nothing particularly unique or imaginative about either the endeavor or the questions asked. Still, it makes me think, and I thought it might be a fun thing for us to think about together.
Herewith, the most frequently asked questions. I’ll offer up my own answers in a follow-up post. Perhaps you might answer either here in the comments, on Facebook, or somewhere else I might find you.
Who were your heroes growing up?
What is the best advice you ever received and from whom?
Who had the biggest influence on you when you were younger?
Was there a life-changing book you read? Movie you saw? Adventure you had?
What is the trait you most admire in other people? Least admire?
How should one handle getting older (if you are, indeed, older)?
How should one handle criticism?
If you could select the guests for your dream dinner party, attendees living or dead, who would you invite?
Do you have any advice you’d like to have given to your younger self?
How do you want to be remembered?
There’s a whole lotta ground you could cover there. Pick a few or pick ’em all. No rules here, just an opportunity to take a little stock, draw a few lines in the sand, look both forward and back. Write it down somewhere I might see it. Or not. Incorrigible naval-gazing bloviators like yours truly might turn each question into a an essay of its own, filling pages in the process. The poets among us will tell epic tales using fewer word than a Haiku.
That’s all part of the fun, eh?
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