Questions

I like questions. Questions are fun. A friend of mine likes to play a question game. He'll ask a question like, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" waits for the answer, and then asks, "Why?" Once that one is answered, he'll ask "Why?" again. You think you've already answered, but you find you didn't answer completely. You can continue asking "Why?" again and again, until you reach the core of the matter. It's very revealing and very fun. There's a pressure to that sort of questioning that challenges you to come up with the whole answer. The best part of it is, sometimes you had no idea what the whole answer is or will be until you get to it and you are surprised. Try it sometime.

I also have a little book called The Book of Questions that I bought at least 15 years ago. I came across the book again the other day when cleaning and flipped through it. It's interesting to see how your answers may have changed from years back. One interesting part of the book is that many of the questions require that you "assume you are single" or "assume you haven't been to college" or some other thing. The questions actually contain that instruction. Some people are so grounded in reality they can't answer questions like that without a little help.

Sometimes people are also afraid of hurting the feelings of friends and loved ones when they ask themselves questions, so they can't come up with their true answer. For example, someone might ask you a classic question like, "if you knew then what you know now, what would you have done after high school graduation?" This question is hard for lots of people because changing something means your entire life might be changed. You might not be married to the same person, have children, know the friends you know. But the point of such self-exploration is not to dismiss the life you have. The point is to look at the changes you think you'd make, figure out what you'd hope to gain from such changes, and then apply that knowledge to your life now.

One of my favorite questions is, "what would you do if you won the lottery?" Again, there are people who can play this game and people who can't. And some play it better than others. If you ask yourself this question, do yourself a favor and dispense with the "pay off my debt, donate to my kid's school, buy my mom a house," and other bullshit. That stuff is such a given, not to mention so unimaginative, it isn't worth the ink to print, the breath to speak, nor the wear and tear on your manicure to type.

Now then, what would you do? Travel the world? Why?
Go back to school? To learn what? Why?

I'd travel the world because I want to see places that were there before me and will be there when I'm gone. I want to walk where a million other strangers have walked so that I can have it in common with them.

I'd learn to weld. I want to make weird metal sculputures.

I'd go to cooking school because "not know how to cook is like not knowing how to fuck" according to one of my favorite directors, Robert Rodriguez.

I'd have a little donkey with a flowered hat to pull a cart in the Christmas parade just because I want one.

What would you do? Ask yourself a question.