You are a six year-old youngster who has escaped with your mother on a boat from Cuba that has capsized somewhere off the Florida coast. You are holding on to an inner tube you shared with your mother, who was forced to let go as the waves crashed upon you both. What thoughts are going on in your head as you wait in the ocean. Will you be rescued?

There is one special word that captures your very spark, that captures the meaning of your life. It makes you recall a defining moment in your life or an experience that you will never ever forget. What is that special word, and what does it mean to you?

There is a famous person in history whom you always wanted to meet. Maybe your words will affect a key decision that person is about to make. That person is all ears. Think carefully now: What would you say or ask? How would you change the course of history?

Things have suddenly gone dreadfully wrong! Astronomers are predicting that asteroids will rain down upon Earth and extinguish life as we know it. You are deciding how you will spend your last day on this planet. What will you do? Where will you be? Who, if anyone, would you want to be with? How will you celebrate the amazing beauty, the wonderfulness of your life in its last moments?

You have just completed the first draft of your 399-page autobiography. Your literary agent flips opens your manuscript to page 200 and gasps at what she reads. What incident in your life is on that page?

I will plant some dream seeds in the name of Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white minority rule and served as his country’s first black president. Here are some things I would like to see spring forth from my seeds: