Day 14: Michael Blackshaw
What do you do for a living?
I’m a bicycle shop owner.
What do you do to feel alive?
Mostly things that bring me close to death
A lesson you learned from your mother:
Clean your plate
A lesson you learned from your father:
Respect Science
What’s the most beautiful thing you saw today?
There hasn’t been much beauty in my day so far.
What’s one thing you wouldn’t want anyone to take away from you?
Free thought
What thought would you like to never have again?
The memories of the deaths of family members
If you could become an inanimate object what would it be?
A bicycle
When do you feel most loved?
When I’m with people who are close to me – and when I’m far away from most people
If your life were to end tomorrow what would be left undone?
Too many things to list
What global issue would you take on if you didn’t have to worry about how?
Preservation of the ocean and marine life
What’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
I almost drowned a couple times in a row. I was surfing big surf in Costa Rica and I took the first wave in the set. By the time I fell out of the first wave the second one came crashing down on me. I was stuck in the white water and had the whole “life flashing before my eyes” experience. Before I could catch my breath the next wave came and I went through it all over again. By the fourth wave I was in a state of complete calm.