Photos by Brian Guilliaux
ARTS CHAT
DH: What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome? PA: Dealing with people. No one in particular. I’ll tell you two things. When I came to America in 1981, I did visit Disneyland in California. I walked around there, met my wife there and I was in the Abraham Lincoln Auditorium. There were several plaques. One plaque read, ‘What is Freedom?’; the answer: ‘You can have as much freedom as you like in America as long as you don’t take the freedom away from your neighbor’. That comes from Lincoln and made me think. Then in 1982, I went to work for one year for an Entrepreneur Jeweler with about 1,000 employees and I managed the entire store. In his office, there was one plaque, huge office with five doors, always an escape. That one plaque, signed by David Rockefeller, that plaque said, ‘If you can teach me how to deal with people, I will give you my fortune!’
DH: Most beautiful place you’ve visited in the world? PA: Amalfi coast in Italy, Positano. There are so many beautiful places. Vienna is my favorite city. I love Paris. It’s a conjunction of the culture, restaurants, philosophy, nature. It always comes back to nature. DH: What are your travel essentials? What three things do you have to bring? PA: A life experience. That I was able to learn something from someone, and I was able to make a difference in someone’s life. DH: If you could have a meal with anyone, whom would it be with? PA: My wife, Marilyn. DH: Who is your style icon? PA: Hermès
PA: I’m not bringing anything! I was raised in a jungle; I want to be with nature! DH: What do you pray for? PA: Every morning when I swim, I pray directly to God and ask Him to lead me to someone where I can make a difference. Everything that keeps me going is that I can contribute to the well-being of someone else. Because I have everything, I’m there. I feel great! But I need to be content and in order to be content, the only [thing] is love. And love that only exists and maintain if you can give. And giving is the key of love. And a nice piece of jewelry that you don’t need, but because you love someone, you give something extraordinary, and that makes sense. If you see a happy person, you find they stay with nature, beauty and they give. Love, nature, beauty, give.
DH: What three items would you bring to a desert island? southlake ARTS
FEB 2014
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