The question
What thought won't let you sleep?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A couple of years ago we moved to East Sussex – I had been living in London for 35 years – and couldn’t work out why I kept waking up and thinking, what’s that sound? It was actually silence.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 March 2023 source ↗
Not being at peace with myself, in spite of an ongoing lifetime effort to try to calm down and accept that, no matter what, I did the best I could.
Menopausal anxiety.
Thinking I’ve upset somebody.
The fact that at least 300,000 women die every year from pregnancy and childbirth-related issues that are largely preventable.
Arrogance, bullying, meanness – just try to be kind, it’s not difficult.
Live in the moment. Enjoy life because time cruelly speeds up as you get older and becomes scarily finite.
After the birth of both my children, although Manchester United winning the treble in 1999 came pretty close.
Going to pieces while meeting John Squire, the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses, backstage after a gig. I completely lost the ability to speak. I told him I had the same guitars as he’d just used on stage, and when he asked me which ones, the words completely went out of my head and there was a huge pause, and then his wife tapped his shoulder and he wandered off.
Outliving my kids – and rats.
Professionally, becoming a relative success in a job that I love; and personally, helping to raise two wonderful children.
Julie Hesmondhalgh, Daryl McCormack, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jack Whitehall
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