The Night of Questions

I had the most wonderful evening with my family -- hubby and two daughters -- the night before Thanksgiving. After dinner (a late one, because I was a bit disorganized), hubby got out an old Book of Questions he's had for two or three decades and started asking away.

Would you enjoy spending a month of complete solitude (food and shelter provided) in a beautiful natural setting? Hubby was a definite yes; the rest of us were not so sure.

Does the fact that you have never done something before increase or decrease its appeal to you? This one definitely showed up the differences between our daughters. Those of you who know them don't even need to ask who said which.

If your friends and acquaintances were willing to bluntly and honestly tell you what they really thought of you, would you want them to? I said no -- I would obsess over any criticism I heard and ignore the positives.

Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities.  Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use? We ladies said absolutely . . . until hubby pointed out that there are at least that many deaths a year from automobile accidents. Which then brought up the question: if we had lived at the time of the invention of the automobile and knew how many people would die each year in car wrecks, would we have tried to prevent its use? Much more interesting question, because it's hard to conceive of modern life without the automobile.

Would you like your spouse to be both smarter and more attractive than you? Hubby, of course, had to get smart-alecky with this one.

When did you last sing to yourself? Uh, a couple hours ago, in the car.

What was your best and worst experience with drugs or alcohol? Hubby asked this one as a joke, knowing neither of our girls uses -- and yes, we are sure of that. But we did get some interesting responses. The youngest remembered with disgust the church we visited a few weeks ago that used real wine for communion (seriously, the look on her face was priceless). The oldest mentioned a night when I gave her an Ambien and she was Skype-ing with a friend before she went to bed -- apparently, she was quite entertaining, her friend told her.

Would you give up half of what you now own for a pill that would permanently change you so that one hour of sleep each day would fully refresh you?  I was the only one that went for this one enthusiastically. There's a lot I would give to get fully refreshing sleep. Overall, though, I noted from many questions that money is not a big pull for me or my girls, which is good to hear.

Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world? Oooooh . . .

Since adolescence, in what three-year period do you feel you experienced the most personal growth and change? The girls couldn't really answer this one . . . but hubby picked the ages of about 23-26 (interesting, because that's when we first met). I picked the ages of 26-29 -- my eldest was born when I was 27. So much in those years that changed who I am.

If you learned you would die in a few days, what regrets would you have? Surprising to hear the regrets my daughters have already in their short lives.

We spent about four hours sitting talking about this stuff. No TV. Just talking. It was wonderful. I will probably treasure its memory for years -- when the girls are gone and I'm remembering the joy of living with them, last Wednesday night will be one of the moments I remember.

Too bad I have no photo to put in the scrapbook.