Which One of You Are You Inviting to Dinner
Which one of your former or future selves would you most love to break bread with?
Our six-year-old son told me he misses his five-year-old self yesterday.
When I asked him to tell me more, he went on to explain he imagines each one or his former selves trapped in their age… wandering around there (and then) for eternity.
So, I asked him, what if we invited all of his former selves (his one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old, four-year-old, and five-year-old selves) over for dinner?
He said, yes, adding his zero-year-old self to the invite list.
Of course! How could I possibly have forgotten his zero-year-old, self?!
I then asked him about his 100-year-old self and he said no, because he wasn’t sure he’d be making it to a 100-year-old self; so, I suggested his 50-year-old self to which replied in disgust, “no, only my ‘short’ (i.e. young) ones.”
Aside from making me laugh, it made me wonder: who of me would I invite to dinner?
Who/when of you would you invite?
Being as curious as I am, naturally, I’d want every before and after me I could get to come. But how much could I realistically learn from each one if they’re all there?
Same goes for you.
So what if… we broke it down to three? Three younger and three older, who would they be? Or, to keep it in the true spirit of our son’s thinking, what if all future selves are banned from this dinner?
What three past yous would you invite to dinner?
A few more questions for your curiosity to consider before taking your selves out to dinner:
What are you having for dinner?
Where are you going for dinner? Cooking at home, or going out?
Who would each of your former selves bring as their plus one?
Curious who of you you’d invite to dinner!
I’m also curious how many other directions you could take this Curiosity-Based Thinking exercise. What other questions might you consider before going to dinner?
Randomish Curiosity: What’s up with zero? Our boy hitting me with the zero-year-old self really sent my curiosity about zero for a loop. Talk about an undervalued value… zero is a wild one!
Stay curious!
Matt