Category Archives: questions

q and a.

Standard

 

back in my advertising days

i often had to find answers to odd questions of all kinds

as there was no google then

 when i exhausted all possible avenues

(asking 2 or 3 random people in my office)

i knew there was a place i could go to find someone

who would unfailingly find an answer to my questions

i dialed up the local phone number

of the woman sitting at a desk in the detroit public library

who held the very interesting and important position of

 ‘chief and brilliant question answerer/researcher’

(or some such title as i imagined it to be)

she answered my call

when i asked in all seriousness:

“did gumby (of gumby and pokey fame), have a nose?”

she did not waver or judge and said she would research it and get back to me asap

true to her word she returned my call within the hour with this report:

she could confirm

that gumby did indeed, have a nose

brilliant

client crisis averted

just another moment in her day and i wish this position still existed.

“i used to think i knew all the answers.

then i thought knew maybe a few of the answers.

now I’m not even sure I understand the questions.

nobody knows anything.”

― pete nelson, american author

questions.

Standard

came across this open door

when walking in the park

  so many questions. 

 

“answers are closed rooms; and questions are open doors that invite us in.”

-nancy willard

 

 

 

argo park, ann arbor, michigan, usa – march 2021

listen and hope.

Standard

 

I signed his copy of ‘The Tale of Despereaux’ and he said, “My teacher said fifth grade is the year of asking questions.”

“Really?” I said.

“Yeah,” he said.  He took out a notebook.  “Every day we’re supposed to ask someone different a good question and listen really good and then write down the answer when they’re done talking.”

“Oh,” I said, “I get it.  I’m someone different.  Okay, what’s your question?”

“My question is how do you get all that hope into your stories?”

“That’s not a good question,” I said.  “That’s a great question.  Let me think.  Um.  I guess that writing the story is an act of hope, and so even when I don’t feel hopeful, writing the story can lead me to hope.  Does that make sense?”

“Yeah,” he said.  He looked me in the eye.  “It’s kind of a long answer.  But I can write it all out.  Thanks.”

He picked up his copy of Despereaux, and walked away—writing in his notebook.

This was years ago.

Why did I wake up this morning and think of this child?

Maybe because this is a time to start asking good questions, a time to write down the answers, a time to listen to each other really well.

I’m going to get myself a little spiral bound notebook.

I’m going to listen and hope.

-Kate DiCamillo – American author

downhill.

Standard

hard to tell from this shot

but these benches

were sitting

back to back

slanted at a downward angle

on the side of a hill.

is this a geometry puzzle?

is this a statement?

is this art?

is this science?

is this_______?

 

“if the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain’t enough!”

-shel silverstein

 

a child can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. ~author unknown

Standard

IMG_0130

how many minnows are in there?

what’s that thing?

is that place far away?

how many different colors are in there?

where did the sun go?

why is that bigger than my head?

who’s turn is it?

sittin’ on a dock on a bay…..

address:

on glen lake up north in michigan