Happy Birthday Franci Louann, author of Beach Cardiology

To help us celebrate her birthday, Franci answered Seven of the Proust. Here they are, italicized, in her own words:


What is your idea of happiness?

You mean—other than a good, dark chocolate fondue? Peace of mind. I love long mornings of puttering, writing, and virtual connections. Also, poetry—its arrival, the rewriting, and sharing with friends.


What is your favourite virtue?

Honesty, I like to think. We sully ourselves if we are deceitful. (Creative thinking can keep us honest.)


What is your biggest weakness?

The ‘see-food’ diet. I regret that, often, positive thoughts that I feel in my heart don’t spring to my tongue. I may find it hard to forgive meanness. I might be passive-aggressive. (Is that so wrong?) 


Who are your favourite poets?

Dickinson and Frost. I must ‘make room for Rumi’, consider Hopkins, and many more from the past and present. Generally, I prefer contemporary minimalists—or poets who write simply, for example, Wislawa Szymborska. I just came to know of her, since she passed away.

Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?

Dr. Joseph Workman, the Father of Canadian Psychiatry. Albert Schweitzer. Emily Dickinson. Emily was light years ahead of her time. In her writing she used symbols—for example long dashes, upward and downward—for which we still have no equivalent. (Would slashes, forward and backward, do the same work?)

What do you most dislike?

Dishonesty. No, a lack of charity. (Oops, message to myself.)

What is your motto?

I’m an unrelenting optimist, an ‘optometrist—I look on the bright side’. I’m either an optimist or a fool. Oh dear, I feel like a Pisces—swimming in opposite directions.