It occurred to me today that people only ever ask questions that they want to know the answers to. This sounds obvious but really it caught me off guard.

A question comes loaded with responsibility if you think about it. Take the standard greeting – how are you? Most people use that phrase interchangeably with Hello…then when someone actually tells them how they are doing they are caught off guard. When you ask a question you become responsible to whatever the answer is.

This is why we are careful with the questions we ask for we must take ownership of the answer. Questions suggest we care about the answer and the answerer. They suggest we wish to enter into one’s life. To avoid this responsibility we learn to ask only questions we already know the answer to…or we avoid asking questions all together once we begin to realize the answers may oblige us in some way.

We do not like to feel obliged…