Skip to main content

The art of the obvious question

I've never understood the obvious question--when someone asks a question whose answer is right in front of their face. More than that, obvious questions drive me crazy! I guess my problem is that when I talk to someone I want to relate an experience, learn something new, or build relationship. I don't ask pointless questions just for the sake of making conversation.

Boy, have I come to the wrong place.

"You are there?" asked Johannes one day as I sat in the schoolroom. "There" is "dey," and I understood that, but what I didn't understand was what he could possibly be getting at with this question, so I doubted my comprehension and looked to the girls for help. "Yes," I finally said uncertainly after he clarified with an exaggerated "*th*ere." Johannes laughed at what he thought was my not understanding his pronunciation.

"You are doing this?" one of the translators poked his head out the door with that question as I hung laundry in the backyard. (AH! Unassigned deixis on a blatantly obvious and unnecessary question. Could you hit any more of my pet peeves in one short utterance?) Positively bewildered by the intention of this utterance, I stammered out a yes which seemed to satisfy him and he walked away.

Apparently I've got a lot to learn about the art of making conversation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happened to the pledge?

To the 20 (re-elected) Liberal MPs who signed the Vote Palestine platform.  You signed the Vote Palestine platform.   The time to fulfill your pledge is now.  Gaza is facing mass starvation. This isn’t food scarcity. This is intentional blockage of food as a tool of genocide. Canada’s joint statement with 25 other nations called on all the parties to “uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law.”  But Israel has been flagrantly violating multiple obligations of international law almost daily since October 8, 2023 and certain on every day since Canada’s statement was released. There is no need to wait, to give Israel the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing.  “We are prepared to take further action”, the statement reads. So do it.  Canada must immediately impose a true arms embargo on Israel – a two-way arms embargo – and it must actually put it into force and close all loopholes.  Canada must immediately levy sancti...
1 comment
Read more

Letter writing success

Last week, several sources linked to a letter appealing to venerable Canadian scientist and nature advocate David Suzuki to withdraw from a supposed climate prize due to its deep ties to an unbashedly colonlialist Israeli organization. The JNF's claim to fame is planting trees in Israel. Pine trees. Non-native trees. Trees that are susceptible to wildfires. Trees intentionally planted atop forcibly-emptied Palestinian villages to try to erase their memory.  The letters worked. Suzuki withdrew. I hadn't gotten around to writing before I got the news. So when a follow up letter to other participants in the prize hit my inbox, I rushed to put my own spin on the letter and sign it. Send your own here I urge you to join David Suzuki in withdrawing from the upcoming Climate Solutions Prize (CSP) festival. CSP was instigated by the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada with support from the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet announced the launch of CSP...
Post a Comment
Read more

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...
5 comments
Read more