Just when you think you already know. Stop. Ask. Ask again. Clarify.
I’ve been to so many sticky situations all because i assumed, in essence, foregoing asking. I thought i’ve gotten it all figured out only to realised much later that i’ve only lazily rested on my assumptions. I’ve neglected a lot of relationships, too because i find asking a hassle and didn’t want to look stupid. After all, isn’t it said that it's better to look stupid for a minute than to be for a lifetime.
Recently, i learned that asking more than deriving information from someone, is cultivating the relationship. And in any types of relationship, those who learn to communicate with each other wins all the time. And isn’t communication merely a cycle of listening, asking, and listening repeat? On the other hand, asking also shows your interest in a particular subject or to a particular person whom you just can’t stop talking with.
But asking is also work, it's picking up the phone, texting away and waiting for a reply, it's research, consulting books, or people, and again waiting for an answer. To some extent, a nuisance even, especially when dealing with seem who seemed to have a myriad of questions about everything. More than setting yourself free from the burden of assumption and the crap it entails, asking as i’ve been learning has an even more positive spin and is never ever to be deemed as something only stupid people do.
As a take away, are there things you’ve been meaning to find out, reason, faith, science, a new recipe, how to fix your bike to what is love? Or do you have anything you’ve been wanting to ask someone about? Well then, fire away as i was told and don’t back off. Asking opens yourself up to a new world you probably haven’t known yet, all you have to do is ask.
ralph
P.S. “We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get the chance to talk. The result is a kind of day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves one person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.” - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig