One More Day

Any Day in the Life of Roger David Sween

Revised 3 July 2017

Based on an interview with Robyn Dochterman, by Andy Lien, Lavender Magazine (#573, May 11-24, 1917) 24.

Age: 77

Where did you grow up? Granite Falls MN, 1940-1958; then, Saint Olaf and the wider world.

Where do you live? Since 2011 in Maplewood MN, after various places in between and 35 years mostly in Red Wing MN.

Who do you live with? Patricia Anne (Worringer) Sween, married since 1962.

What is your occupation? After a 40-year career in library and information services, I say that beyond employment my work is reading, writing, and freelance thinking.

When did you come out? Yes, I am INTJ: see MY TYPE.

How’d that go? I’ve become a fan of personality typing for almost 40 years, and my various personality profiles cluster together, showing the same or related behavior.

When do you wake up? Usually 5 a.m.; sometimes before that.

Phone alarm or alarm clock? The radio near my bed comes on with pleasing, soft, tranquil music from Minnesota Public Radio’s classic music station.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning? Visit the bathroom, drink water, wash dishes left over from previous day, make coffee.

Breakfast? First breakfast is often something to go with my coffee, often a sweet bread, energy bar, or healthy cookie, as oatmeal or peanut butter. In the fuller second breakfast about two hours later, I rotate between cereals, toast with peanut butter, waffles, or eggs prepared in some way. I almost always have fruit, usually a combination of bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

Coffee? Cream or no? Most days, I have one full 14-ounce cup of dark French roast after first pouring a base of  half & half in the cup.

How do you spend your commute? At home, going up and down stairs, from my office plus outside when the temperature rises to allow shorts and sandals. On the road, listening to public radio news or classical music.

If your job were a yearbook, how would you be voted? Most likely to continue in my own ideas.

What inspires you? Philosophy, theory, and serious imaginative literature.

Do you eat your lunch while working or take a break? Never at work, unless you include random thoughts as work. I don’t lunch in a routine or regular way, but I do need to take breaks.

Is your work space tidy or a hot mess? After years of attempting the imperative “file, don’t pile.” I tend to pile, even lose things in the morass of the unfiled. I crave variety and after four hours on a project without finishing, I go on to some other preoccupation, promising myself to shortly go back to the pieces left behind.

What’s been your favorite job? In employment, it was learning more than I was giving. After employment, its pursuing the foundations and explorations of story logic.

Who are your heroes? From a young age, it was Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Later, it was Voltaire, Ayn Rand, Aristotle, and Abraham Lincoln. It’s still Aristotle and in my maturity Ursula K. Le Guin.

Favorite weeknight meal: Go out, take out, or cook in? I prefer going out if it’s a family gathering or we are celebrating something. In house, I’m the sous-chef unless alone.

Most embarrassing moment? I guess I have repressed them all.

On a usual weekend, you are doing what? Leftover projects from the days before, grocery shopping, church, writing a round robin to my three siblings, watching Masterpiece if it is a good one, which usually means a classic one.

Bedtime? I try for 9p.m., but it’s usually later. Sometimes, I need to read awhile to relax myself, but not as lengthy a time as an earlier past when reading books kept me awake.

Words of wisdom to share? We all have limits and imperfections: our challenge is to become our best and strive for the will to do so.