What is the moment you are proudest of? The birth of my two kids. What is your favorite movie? “Life is Beautiful.” What is your favorite memory from Hillsdale? Middle of the night trips to Dutch Uncle. What is the one thing you try to impart on your students? Through the messiness and chaos and ups and downs of life, that there is order and beauty that runs deeper. What three books would you bring to a desert island with you (other than the Bible)? Martin Buber’s “I and Thou,” Mark Helprin’s “Winter’s Tale,” and Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” As a former Hillsdale Delt, what do you think about the Delts today? If they spent half as much time on their homework as they do worrying about their hairstyles they be in better shape. Did you ever have an embarrassing style phase? Oh, yeah, the gel spiked straight up the hair. How many kids do you have? Two. What is one thing you learned from your kids? That the world is full of new and wonderful things to behold. Do you have any secret talents? I can count cards. If we play a hand of spades, or hand of whatever, and we’ve played 51 cards, then I can tell you what the last card is in your hand. What is your favorite song? Anything by Snow Patrol. Something emo and indie. Have you traveled to any foreign countries? I’ve been to Turkey, Italy, France, Kenya, Mexico and Canada. What is the stickiest situation you have gotten into in a foreign county? When our Safari truck was surrounded by lions. The real the real problem was someone dropped their phone outside the cab the cab which, you know, they’ll leave you alone as long as you’re in a cab. So we had to try to get the phone which was not that was kind of sticky. What is one food you could not live without? Sun dried tomatoes. And cheese. If you could have lunch with someone from history, who would it be? Aristotle. What is the weirdest food you have ever tried and liked? Alligator. It’s tough but nice. What advice do you try to live by? Being present with the people that you’re around, and somehow authentically relating to them when they are in front of you. What is something people don’t know about you? I’m from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, and I can’t swim. I literally just sink to the bottom. I have tried over and over again. I just can’t. My body, for some reason, just sinks. Like, I can thrash my way to the edge of the pool, but I don’t float. I don’t float. What is the stupidest decision you ever made? I stole an official Hillsdale College groundbreaking shovel and gave it away as a white elephant gift, a white elephant gift party. I also made a calendar of myself shirtless in 12 different months. That was also for a white elephant Christmas party. What is the best decision you ever made? Proposing to my wife. What is something you changed your opinion about? Well, I’m pretty opinionated, and I’m not usually wrong.
