Sacrifice the self and you will gain it. Serve the self and you will lose it.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
What scares you about getting older?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Redemption. People can be redeemed, goals can be redeemed.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 137 →
Erin O'Connor
English model
To be humble is to be sane.
Matthew Modine
American actor
That we are all no more and no less than a single thread in a gigantic web of life. What we do and how we behave has repercussions for the entire web.
Michael Flatley
American step dancer
You’re going to come up against brick walls in life. You’ve got to go over them, under them, around them, or crash through them, but somehow or other you’ve got to get to the other side.
More from Gregory Porter
View profile →Barack Obama, for his humility and grace in the face of enormous difficulty.
Losing the people that I love.
Immunity to cruelty.
Telling a story to my son about my brother.
An accounting is given of our lives. Did you give more than you’ve taken? Hurt more people than you’ve helped?
The Covid years. My life is diminished since then. I lost my brother. My children lost some social expression, and we are still recovering from that.
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 577 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 77 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 22 answers
Also answered this
Pauline McLynn, Arlene Phillips, Brandi Carlile, Rory Stewart, Jack Whitehall, Marcus Brigstocke
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