This virtual “self-interview” is actually a merge of pieces of discussions and thoughts  (in the form of Questions and Answers) I have shared with friends and students of mine, over time…

Q: Let’s begin with a personal question; How…?
A: Gosh… hm… it’s hard to begin… I don’t remember… so many years have passed since I was born…

Q: What does age means for you?
A: An accumulation of experiences…Lifespan is not measured through years but through experiences… The more experiences you have the longer your life…

Q: What is the main features of your character?
A: Patience, perseverance and passion…

Q: …and your main flaws?
A: The same…

Q: If you were to turn time 20 years back, what would you have changed?
A: Fortunately, this is impossible….

Q: Why did you state “fortunately”?
A: Because, I probably would be unable to avoid making even more mistakes than I already have made so far…

Q: How many mistakes have you made in your life?
A: My whole life is a chain of tragic and wonderful mistakes...

Q: What is a “wonderful mistake”?
A: One that’s made me happy making it…

Q:  …and what was the most “tragic” of your mistakes?
A: One I haven’t made yet…

Q: Have you ever suffered from your mistakes?
A: Of course… I have suffered a lot…
However, we learn from our mistakes… This is the way the life teach us how to live…

Q. Have you hurt people with your mistakes?
A. Inevitably, yes… But what I can’t handle is when beloved people feel hurt with tragic “mistakes” I haven’t even made… instead of them adoring me for the wonderful mistakes I have made…

Q. How can someone be hurt by “mistakes” you didn’t make?
A. When he wrongly believes and attribute mistakes to me that I haven’t committed…

Q. But this is childish injustice…
A. There you are…

Q: Do you ask others to forgive you for mistakes you’ve made that hurt them?
A: I do not ask for forgiveness… I acknowledge my mistakes, I take full responsibility… and I express my sincere apology… One apology heals two souls… one’s who has hurt and one’s who was hurt…

Q: Do you forgive those who hurt you…?
A: Forgiveness is a heavy word… To err is human, to forgive divine… I do not take up nor delegate to others, the role of God in order to heal my soul… It is very selfish…

Q: Are there “unforgivable” mistakes? I mean mistakes for which an apology is not accepted;
A: Yes… Those for which no apology has been expressed…

Q: What behavior do you hate the most?
A: Ingratitude – the discreditable lack of gratitude…

Q: Have there been ungrateful people in your life?
A: Of course, it is those who do not recognize how much they have benefited from me, and those who will never forgive me for how much they have harmed me…

Q: What command would you give to your son:
A: According to Kazantzakis, “it’s my duty to give my son the great command to outrun me”… However, I cannot do this… Instead, I would tell him never to accept any commandments…

Q: Any guidance on which way to follow in his life?
Α: I would tell him the lines from the poem of Antonio Machade, that Michael liked so much: Wayfarer, there is no path… you make the path by walking… and upon glancing behind you see the path you will never tread again…

Q: What would you advise your son?
A: To be authentic and dignified and to travel a lot… to be a citizen of the world…

Q: What do you wish for your son?
A: TO BE HEALTHY… Physically and mentally…
and to follow my advice… to travel and to enjoy the beauty of the world…

Q: What is beauty for you?
A: Beauty is whatever vibrates the soul… Beauty is the speechless eloquence of nature… and nature is the manuscript of God…Beauty is Fibonacci’s 1.618 that occurs in the entire continuum from atoms to galaxies... However, we should be alive for beauty to exist… Beauty does not exist unless there are two eyes looking at it to enjoy…

Q: What is your motto?
A: “Keep going”… whatever may happen around you, do not stray from your goal or be distracted… keep focused on it… “Unless you look where you are going you will end up where you look at“…

Q: …any other mottos of yours?
A: I have many mottos that drive my life … An apothegm that I adopted as my motto while I was younger that strongly affected me, says: «I was sad because I had no shoes until I saw someone without legs»… This motto taught me that «rather than complaining for what I want and do not have, be happy for what I do not want and do not have»…

Q: What is happiness for you?
A: Hmm, there are many mottos about happiness… I recall the one saying that «Doing what you like is freedom while liking what you do is happiness»… I do not know if this or which one describes happiness better, but I agree with Socrates who stated «Happiness belongs to the frugality living»…

Q: …and what is unhappiness for you?
A: Undoubtedly «Unhappiness is the perpetual pursuit of happiness»…

Q: How do you know if someone is happy?
A: Usually happy people are smiling and laughing…

Q: Do you use to smile or laugh?
A: I laugh at times… I smile quite often… almost always…

Q: What makes you smile or laugh?
A: My son makes me smile… my wife makes me laugh…

Q: Hmm… Can you explain this?
A: My son is in my mind… My wife is in my life… both are in my heart…

E: How important is your son in your life?
A: My son is the proof of my existence… he is the trace of my passage on the planet…

Q: Who is your best teacher?
A: My son…

Q: !!!!… Your son?!.. I expected the opposite!! What he has taught you?
A:  Since his birth I became wiser… Thanks to him, I realized what life is and how important life is… .

Q: …what is life and how important is it?
A: Life is the exception of the universal rule that strives to become the rule…

Q: What do you mean?
A: The universal rule is death. This is described by the two universal laws of Thermodynamics which state of the tendencies of systems’ towards “high entropy” (disorder) and “low energy”… Life stubbornly opposes these universal laws of thermodynamics… An alive body is a system that increases its energy while reducing its entropy (to remain highly in order)… Upon death the body becomes disordered (entropy increases) and loses its energy…

Q: How is it achieve?
A: With stubborn perseverance… Have you ever thought how stubbornly life established on earth when earth was inhospitable to life? Have you ever paid attention to some plants that grow on the surfaces of inhospitable rocks? Have you ever realized that life exists even under the most inhospitable conditions of extreme high pressure, cold and darkness in the abyss (the bottom of the oceans)?…
This is life…

Q: …and how important is life?
A: Life is priceless and we should realize it as such… Earth is the only known place in the universe where life exists. If you could look at earth from very far away, from the dead deep dark space, you would realize what life is and how important it is…

Q: What is the purpose of Life?
A: The purpose of “life in general” is its self-expansion, perpetuation and dominance over death… 

Q: What is the purpose of “human life”?
A: The purpose of human life is creation; It finds its utmost expression in the creation of new life…

Q: Who is your best tutor of life besides your son?
A: My supervisor… He never talked to me about life… but he never knew how many lessons about life I gained from him…
This is the way I remember him…

Q: How would you like the others to remember you?
A: I do not know how the others would remember of me after I have become the past… However, «I would not want to be remembered by the wrong people for the wrong reasons»…

Q: What is past for you?
A: Past is the realized reality… Past is a black and white video or a sepia photo… Past is our experiences…  Past is our memories… Past is permanently recorded and unchangeable… 

Q: …and what is future?
A: Future is the potential reality… Future is a colorful picture or video waiting to be recorded… Future is borderless and experienceless… It is the unbridled fantasy… Future is when dreaming awake…

Q: …and, now, what is present for you?
A: The present is the real life… ruthlessly gnawed by memories of the past and anxieties of the future… Present is the visible future… Present is the next eternal millisecond… I will never forget my son’s query when he was about 6 years old… He was trying to understand the meaning of the “present” and he asked me to confirm his thought: «Dad, the “present” does not exist, right?… because before we complete saying the word “present” it has already become “past”… right? »…

Q: You said that “Present is the next eternal millisecond…”, what do you mean?
A: That is the relativity of time…

Q: Would you, please, explain it further?
A: I will try explaining it with a joke…
There was a poor man talking to God…
poor man: My God, how much is one minute of our time yours?
God: One million years…
poor man: Wow!!!
poor man: My God, 1€ of ours, are how many € of yours?
God: One million €s…
poor man: Wow!!!….
and, after having some second thoughts…
poor man: My God, could you, please, give me just 1€!
God: Of course… Just wait a minute…

Q: you also said that “the present is the real life” and, at the same time, that “the present does not exist”, right? How does this happen? I am confused…
A: I am also confused!… and how not to be when Einstein has said that «The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion»…

Q: What excites you the most?
A: The concept of life on the canvas of infinity of space and the indeterminacy of time…

Q: What is the glass for you, half-full or half-empty?
A: I am by nature moderately optimist… Optimism is a happiness magnet that attracts good things and good people to you… but do not forget that, sometimes, «pessimist is a well-informed optimist» who knows better… after all, both have been proved useful to the society… «the optimist discovered the airplane… and the pessimist discovered the parachute»…

Q: Which historical figure do you most identify with?
A: I admire many historical figures… I identify with none of them….

Q: If you were given a chance to have a dinner with a person, alive or not, who would be and why?
A: I do not know… I haven’t thought about it before… Hmm… I am thinking aloud, right now… I would like to meet with personalities who have left their indelible mark with quotes about life and science… To mention some names: Aristoteles, Plato, Confucius, Goethe, Albert Einstein, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Khalil Gibran…

Q: Okay, …now, let’s land in your real life.
Do you like traveling?
A: I like traveling, literally, a lot… but I also like traveling figuratively by Einstein’s point of view, who said, «I love to travel but I hate to arrive»…

Q: What is your favorite trip?
A: The one I haven’t done yet…

Q: Your favorite trip from those you have already done?
A: NY, Niagara Falls, Thousand Islands; Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor, …

Q: What’s on your bucket list?
A: Sydney, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Japan, Grand Canyon…

Q: Where would you like to live?
A: NY, Miami or Paris… and, from Greece, in Volos and …in the terrible Athens…

Q: Have you any talents that is not known to those who know you?
A: I used to paint… but the gears of the life keep me away from painting… You need to have a quiet calm and trouble-free life in order to paint… I hope to see myself painting again… this will be an indication that I once again have a quiet life…

Q: What is your favor color?
A: Orange in black… I don’t know why…

Q: Your favorite painter?
A: G. Gounaro (George Gounaropoulos), and, from the contemporary artists, Dimitris Mytaras and, especially, his Hagiography of Panagia Katafygiotissa…

Q: Some singers and songs?
A: I like some jazz pieces, like the “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck, as well as some non popular Greek singers, like Kadinelia, (e.g. link, link)…

Q: What virtue do you prefer in a man?
A: Trust, responsibility and maturity…

Q: What are the special characteristics a woman must have for you to say the big yes?
A: Respect, Appreciation and Admiration...

Q: Hmm… You didn’t say “Love”! Isn’t Love important in a relationship?
A: Of course, it is… I just described it… these three are the basic ingredients of Love…

Q: Do you demand Respect, Appreciation and Admiration from your friends also…
A: No, not all of the three are demandable… You can demand Respect, e.g., in your professional environment, but you cannot demand Appreciation… Appreciation is only gained… Appreciation is hard to gain… and easily lost… The same is valid for admiration…

Q: In which case do you choose to lie?
A: Never – I cannot manage it, and I suffer when I have to say even the so-called “conditional lies”…

Q: Your biggest fear?
A: a cursed Alzheimer…

Q: What makes you get up in the morning?
A: My intrinsic instinctive duty to give the sun the opportunity to rise for me…

Q: It sounds a little bit selfish, doesn’t it?
A: No, not at all… The opposite… I am just saying I am grateful that I am alive to see the sun one more time…

Q: If you could learn something from your future through a glass sphere, what would you like to know?
A: Nothing… Usually people want to learn about their future… but if you learn in advance about something negative that is going to happen to you in the future you will begin suffering it immediately… 

Q: …As we approaching the end of this interview, would you like to send any message to somebody?
A: Yes, I have a message to whom it may concern:
“If you stay, stay forever. If you go, do it today. If you change, change for the better. And if you talk, make sure you mean what you say…”

Q: …and just a last question, I see that you always close you sentences by three dots, not one dot, why?
A: I hate the dots; this is why I put them in sets of three…

Q: What do you mean?
A: One dot declares end, i.e. death. Three dots declare continuation... i.e. nothing ends… Life goes on…

Q: You challenge me to ask more questions! but let’s put a dot here.
A: Three dots I would say …

Q: Thank you for this interview… I hope to talk with you again, soon.
A: Thank you too for the opportunity to express myself so the readers of this page know me better…
I will seize any opportunity to feed this virtual self-interview with more Qs and As… So, the returned visitors of this page will know me even better…

C.S.