A few years ago, I read The Answer to How Is Yes,
by Peter Block, in which he posed that we are asking ourselves and our organizations the wrong questions, and thus arriving at inadequate, frequently poor answers/solutions. He postulated six more potent questions, the last of which I found to be the most provocative.
"What is the question whose answer would set you free?" Even though I couldn't come up with a good example of such a question at the time, I filed it away, satisfied that I would recognize one when I heard or saw it - or better yet, posed one myself.
Well, I've stumbled upon a great example, for me at this point in my life. For others who are in the midst of a transition, I suspect. Wish I'd come across it at other turning points in my life! The question?
"What is it too soon for, too late for, just the right time for? ~ Dawna Markova
Haven't got an easy answer, but that's one of my criteria for a good question. No quick or glib or superficial response will do. The question persists, niggling at the corners of my mind, burbling in the background like our water fountain, surfacing when I least expect it. Demanding an answer. Even as I engage with it in my daily journal, as I have on several occasions, I end up with cursory or partial answers, and yet more questions. Why do I think it's too late? Who says so? Why am I hesitating? What if.....?
And then, another question from the archives - What would you attempt if you knew you would not fail? ~ Robert Schuller
So, for the time being, just hanging out in the ambiguity, trusting that within this, no, these questions, is the kernel of something interesting and exciting for the future.
My attention was captured by the first trailer I saw. Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson - a cast of wonderful British actors in one film. I wondered, however, if it was a chick flick and an aging chick flick at that. Could I convince John to come with me - he who loves special effects and has difficulty understanding accents?
Fortunately, word-of-mouth endorsements have been building in our retirement community and I reminded him that he had enjoyed "Midnight in Paris". So we attended a Saturday matinee with perhaps a hundred other folks of our generation and, surprisingly, more than a few younger.
It was an appreciative audience, grateful I suspect to see performers of such depth and breadth depicting our generation, woefully neglected in the cinema, as capable of not only managing change, but generating it. Capable of healing the past and orchestrating an invigorating future. Riding a motorcycle through the teeming traffic of Jaipur? Looked pretty invigorating to me.
It is a sweet and compassionate film, presenting its characters - the elderly British and the young Indians - as well as India itself, with sensitivity and respect. (Judi Dench's character, Evelyn, easily could become a poster child for how to age with dignity).
So, whatever the critics and pundits may say about this film, we loved it as did that Saturday audience, youngsters included, who left smiling, chattering, many eager to tell friends and family they have to see it. I, for one, intend to see it again!
