I’d like them to inherit my optimism.
What would you like to leave your children?
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
How close have you come to death?
Death & what remains
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Compassion, resourcefulness and resilience form a rounded good person. So that’s what I’d like to leave my children and grandchildren.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 March 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 53 →I don’t have children. I will leave my nieces money because girls need money of their own. Anything to make women independent.
Good self-esteem.
A strong sense of being loved and a hopefulness for their life ahead.
More from Chris Bonington
View profile →Whenever things seem absolutely terrible, to see that you’re alive and that’s all that matters.
It’s my snoring that keeps Loreto awake!
There are so many instances when I’ve come very close to death that it’s difficult to pick one.
I was a huge daydreamer and imagined myself as a successful general leading his troops into battle.
Everest the hard way in 1975: leading the expedition that succeeded where so many people had tried and failed. That was the most complex mountaineering challenge I ever faced. I spent hours at night in a little tent thinking about what the next problem would be and how to solve it.
Becoming more physically active.
More on death & what remains
- What would you like to be remembered for? 228 answers
- How close have you come to death? 214 answers
- What song would you like played at your funeral? 179 answers
- What happens when we die? 56 answers
- If you had only one day left to live, how would you spend it — and what would you deliberately avoid doing? 54 answers
- How would you like to die? 46 answers
Also answered this
Ally McCoist, Abby Wambach, Gregory Porter, Dawn O’Porter, Justin Hawkins, Adam Clayton
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All death & what remains questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject