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What time is it?
Years ago there was a show on TV called Northern Exposure. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time. It was quirky and fun and always surprising. One of the things I like the most about it was that there was always a bit of philosophy in it, a bit of exploration into the human spirit. In one episode, Marilyn, the ever calm, mild mannered native of Alaska, asked Chris, the DJ/philosopher extraordinaire, to teach her how to drive. He was so excited to be a teacher! He got out the car manual and was showing her the inner workings of the engine, he explained all the safety features of the car. Through all of this she kept repeating “I want to drive.” Chris took so long to getting around to letting her get behind the wheel that she had asked someone else to teach her. I’ll never forget Chris’ comment about it. He said “She asked me for the time and I told her how to build a watch.”
How often do we do the same thing? Recently a friend asked me a question that could have been easily answered with a yes or no and I proceeded to take almost 10 minutes to get around to it! I had to explain everything going on around the issue and all the reasons the answer was no. It made me wonder about how much time we waste talking around a topic instead of giving a straight answer and then moving on. It also made me wonder about why I spent so much time explaining my answer.
Simply answering the question is enough.