(It was a long time in coming, but I think you’ll agree it was worth the wait. Thank you Simon, your answers are everything I’d hoped they’d be and more. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing a few tidbits of your awesome life with us. You’re a cool guy.)
As part of my newly-devised “No Interview Left Behind” initiative, I’m resurrecting this perfectly good interview that went unanswered and the man who gets the crown, I have decided, is Simon Bunny Bigword. I determined in my heart that I would interview him a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to him read “The Year of Jubilee”; the vigor and verve in his voice was so, well, jubilant. It really made an impression on me.
I may be setting myself up for heartbreak again as he’s no doubt a busy guy and I must depend on the goodwill of others to relay this message to him (whoever you are, thank you) but I figured it was at least worth a shot. I changed a few little things around on these questions and added a bonus one at the end, yay. Interview guidelines found here.
What where you doing with your life when you met the Family and were you one of the “I knew in that moment that I was supposed to join” types or did it take longer?
The weeks leading up to my meeting the Family were incredible. I was in my first year of college and seriously looking for answers to life’s meaning. For some reason I accepted as an absolute, Shakespeare’s statement “the eyes are the window to the soul”. In my search, it never crossed my mind to give Jesus a try, as all I saw of churchianity completely turned me off. I figured the answers must lie in some mystical Eastern religion. The Hare Krishna people would come to the campus every Thursday and I bought one of their glossy mags. Trying to find answers in those pages, I came across an explanation of one of our future lives that we could attain to, where we would live on the Sun. It didn’t seem too inviting to me, and so I figured I would give it the Shakespeare acid test. Next Thursday, I would pose the Sun question to one of the Hare Krishna guys and then look in his eyes to see if he was telling me the truth—I was clearly expecting, as Shakespeare had said, to see into his soul. So, sure enough they were there chanting and dancing around with their shaved heads, some sort of clay goop on their foreheads and in those orange-pink robes. I went up to one of them and asked about this solar existence, and if it were literal, or what… I tried to look at him straight in the eyes. But the guy would not look at me. He looked to the left, or right, over my shoulder, or down or up—but he wouldn’t look at me. I kept moving my head around to try and catch his gaze, and I guess it was so obvious, that he had no choice. He finally had to bring his eyes squarely to mine. If you have every had the hair on the back of your neck rise up quickly, you will understand how I then felt. I clearly saw great darkness and fear. This poor frightened person was like he was looking out through prison bars—looking at the words he spoke as they came out of his mouth, and not believing a one of them—but he was trapped. It could not have been clearer or more dramatic. It scared me, and I knew I was finished looking into that option.
A couple of weeks later, for Spring quarter break, I was hitchhiking from Georgia to Florida to see my grandparents. I got a ride and the person began witnessing to me. He told me how he lived communally with other Christian missionaries and how God was supplying all their needs. I don’t know to this day if he was in the Family, but I greatly suspect he was as he told me that if I would just “sign my name on a blank sheet of paper” (a term the Family uses) and give it to Jesus, that He would take over my life and set me free. I listened and then suddenly was struck with the idea of giving him the Shakespeare test—ha! I shot up a silent pray that went like this: “God, if you are real, then make this guy look at me in the eyes when I ask this next question.” And I added, “And if he is telling me the truth about Jesus, then let me see that—or not.” We were driving down the expressway, and had he hadn’t taken his eyes off the road the whole time we had been talking, so this would indeed have to be a miracle. I formulated my question, and then said, “Is Jesus, the only way you can go to Heaven?” He turned right around, locked squarely onto my eyes, (the hair on my neck rose again—but this time with a thrill) and he said with such unshakable conviction and power, “Yes—He is!” He held his gaze for a moment, and then slowly turned back to see where he was going! He could never have known the awesome effect that that had on me. Instead of fear, I saw truth, light, conviction and assurance. I still didn’t know if Jesus was real, but I did know that he believed it with all his soul, whereas the Hare Krishna guy didn’t believe what he was telling me.
Things got pretty heavy during the next week in Florida. I ran into my best friend that I had only known in Korea (we both graduated from HS there—our parents both had Government jobs). While we were talking about old times out on the beach one night, a big heavyset cop named “Rocky Brown” came up behind us—I had acid in my pocket and he and his partner busted me. I was in jail for a week waiting for my trail—my grandfather who was a friend of the judge got me out on bail and the lawyer suggested I go back to the University and wait for the trail, as it would look good for the case. On the way back up—my friend decided to come with me, we both did more acid, and I had the worst trip ever. I remembered what the young guy who witnessed to me said about signing my name on a blank sheet of paper and giving Jesus control of my life. I wanted to do that, but was deathly afraid that He would then turn me into a Churchy person. Finally He got through to me and said, “Look, you’re going to be in My Hands one day anyway, so if I think it’s best to turn you into a church person, then just trust Me for that.” For me, that was the ultimate dying to myself. In my heart I grabbed that pen and signed my name and gave Jesus control of my life. Immediately the acid trip was gone, and I was so incredibly happy that tears started coming down my face. I felt like I could pick up a mountain and throw it—my mind was crystal clear and I immediately had a vision of exciting roads ahead that my life would now take.
We got back to the campus and I still didn’t know what to do with my life—I tried Campus Crusade, but it only took a half a meeting to know that was definitely not what I was looking for. I was happy to see though, that Jesus wasn’t turning me into a church person—ha! We were back at the University less than a week, when three guys from the Family came up and started witnessing to me and my friend. They thought he was the real sheep as he had long hair, whereas mine had gotten buzzed in jail. Anyway, we went to their coffee shop that night just off campus and it was like we had walked into another world. The spirit was so thick there, and everything seemed to just operate on a heavenly plane. I knew I had found what I had been looking for. So, to sum up my long answer to your short question—I knew pretty soon on that I wanted to join! It still took about a month, and that’s another whole story…later.
State your favorite and least favorite country that you’ve lived in and why.
I lived in Japan for 18 years. 6 of our 7 children were born there, so I feel connected there in many ways—although I don’t especially like living in big cities—I prefer to be out a little ways, and that’s not such an option in much of Japan—ha!. Africa was an amazing experience—Uganda and Tanzania. West Africa was scary. When in Nigeria for a filming project, I was often worried for my safety and especially that someone would steal my video camera—ha! I admire the guys that live in Nigeria, as I don’t know that I could—there are some incredible ministries going on there. Siberia was an experience unlike any other. The amenities that we take for granted in most other fields are often not available there—like drinking a glass of water that’s not piping hot from just having been boiled. I admire those who take all that field has to offer and come out smiling and inspired. I don’t know that I have a least favorite, as a lot depends on what you’re going through at the time. If you’re on the top of your game and making progress, in unity with others, etc., then the place doesn’t really matter—as long as you are in His Will. But even the “best” place won’t do much for you if the best things are lacking. This world is not my home and any place here is going to pale next to our next home! I’m very happy to be in Mexico now. It’s a wonderful field.
Name three of your heroes when you were a teenager and three of your heroes now.
Cat Stevens, The Moody Blues, the Hippies —the musicians because of their music that spoke to a searching youth. The Hippie movement because of the radical departure from what wasn’t working and placing greater importance of finding the bigger answers.
Dad has always been and still is a great hero of mine. I loved his radical faith. He said what we felt. Like a dynamic leader, he wasn’t perfect, but his words were liberating and so true. He saved my life with his words!
Other hero’s now. Well, I have always admired Paul of Mary. Working with him in the video ministry in Japan was a real pleasure and I felt he was authentic. No facade. Mama’s Peter is also another hero. From the few times I’ve met him, I felt he is down-to-earth and relatable. This is the same quality I admired in Timothy Concerned when I knew him years ago. I highly value “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” and people being honest. I want the real thing. I’m sure I would be flipped by Mama’s love and spirit, which I am through her writings, although I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her.
Most memorable behind-the-scenes Treasure Attic moment?
I’m not the best singer, and we were doing this “What kind of Animal” number. It was a lot of hopping around for Jim, imitating the various animals and all, and then Bunny just needed to sing one simple line “the lean gazelle is shy and swift and she runs like the wind”, but every time it would get to me I would mess it up. Take 3! The music starts again, Jim hops around singing just great—goes through all the motions, Peppers jumps into the scene, pulls of his line wonderfully, and then it’s Bunny again, “the shy gazelle is lean and swift…” opps. Take 4…I just could not get it. After the 5thrd or 6th take, Chris was laughing so hard, but poor Jim was getting annoyed and he had to do all the jumping around—ha! Finally, I think they took that line away from me and gave it to Peepers!—good call.
There was a cake scene. Where we had a birthday cake or something, and we were all singing Happy Birthday, but on this particular take, for some reason, it had a bunch of lit candles on it and instead of singing the normal line, it was a surprise birthday cake and everyone was singing Happy Birthday to me—at first I was confused until I caught on—a real surprise—that was so sweet.
Chris was laying on his back under a specially made bed. His arm went through a hole and into Peepers who was sick in bed. GB Chris, he had to stay like that for a long time, as it wasn’t easy to set up. I saw an opportunity for a practical joke—LHM. I re-scripted his lines and got everyone to go along with it. We handed him his script under the bed and were ready to roll. This wasn’t strange, as at time there were script changes, and we flowed with it. Instead of his normal lines, our conversation now went something like this:
Bunny: “Peepers, I’m really ashamed of you for getting sick”
Jim: “Yes, Peepers you should follow Bunny’s example”
Peepers: “Oh, Bunny, you’re right. I should have listened. I’m such a dummy and never do anything right at all, I wish I was brilliant like you. I am a downright idiot and…” Chris finally began protesting. “Hey, that doesn’t sound so good” .. he then began laughing realizing he had a bogus script.
–Good natured folks and all of them were an honor and pleasure to work with.
If you could go back in time to before you had kids and give yourself one piece of parenting advice, what would it be?
Don’t be so hard on the first ones. I mellowed out with the others, but feel I was too demanding on the older ones—sorry Na.
Have you ever held a job that you were entirely unsuited for but did out of necessity or for the cause of Christ?
Yes, once I was asked to be a wet-nurse for some newborns. No, seriously, I was a kitchen deacon once on a farm where we had only a wood burning stove. Before every meal, I was told to get down on my face and cry out to the Lord—seriously. And I didn’t question that at all—I knew I needed to—ha! I’ll never forget in that home an interesting brother named Zopher Pilot. Zopher had his head in the clouds and often at devotions or letter reading, he would be commenting “deep”, “deep”. Like every few minutes. I was under condemnation because I wasn’t seeing things as “deeply” as he was. I felt I just wasn’t in tune and as spiritual as Zophar. But then one day, I got the victory. We were working out in the fields digging post holes. Ulhai, the shepherdess came out and announced that we would be having hot-dogs for dinner that night (this was before I had the kitchen deacon job). Zophar looked up from his work and said, oh, wow—“deep”! … Ahah!!!! A light went on and I suddenly realized that if he saw anything deep in hotdogs, that he was probably overusing the phrase I might not be so far behind him spiritually after all.
What trait has my friend, your son, Nathan – inherited from you that is most apparent to you?
I love Jesus and am certain of our rewards and greater blessings coming in Heaven. I see this same confidence and assurance in Na. I am very proud of Nathan and respect him for his faithfulness and pragmatic faith and assurance that we are doing the best thing with our lives that we possibly could be doing.
Finally, a question for Bunny Bigword; It’s been years now since you first hopped your way into our TV’s and hearts. Where have you been and what have you been up to?
BBW: I’m stuck up here in Simon’s closet. He hasn’t let me out for some time, and so this is an appeal to all who read this to rescue me!
Simon: Ha, ha—that’s very funny. You of course don’t believe that do you?
BBW: It’s true—heeeelp!
Simon: Come on now, I took you out of your bag a year ago—don’t you remember?!
BBW: Bunny abuse!!!!
Simon: Uh, oh, I better check the Charter on that one. In all seriousness though. Bunny’s last appearance was filming a commercial for television in Tanzania. With the Lord’s amazing set ups, we were able to book the show there for two years and at a good price, and to kick things off, we filmed Bunny in the TV station’s newsroom, reading the news. After a few news lines, Bunny says, “This just in—Treasure Attic is now on television in Tanzania!!!”
As we are just completing the construction of our new filming studio here at our home in Mexico, Bunny may be making future appearances—who knows?! We’ll have to see what projects the Lord brings along after we finish the couple on our plates.
