Back in the day when we only had landline phones, so we couldn’t carry our phones around with us and there was no texting, googling, etc. – or answering machines for calls we missed and some people still hung their clothes on a clothesline (dryer or no dryer) or at least remembered those days, I came across an ice breaker (an exercise to get a group sharing and feeling more comfortable) in which we were to mentally place ourselves in our home and pick one of the following options as the most important thing we would take care of or “answer” first if they all happened at the same time. (Whew, nice run-on sentence.)
Here are the options:
1) There are clothes on the clothesline, and it just started to rain.
2) the telephone starts ringing (remember, it’s stationary).
3) a knock on the door.
4) the baby started crying.
Be sure to decide which one you would choose before reading the next paragraph. It could be fun. And possibly educational as well. (I chose the baby back then, and I probably still would.)
Now, it’s been a number of years since I did this, but I think I remember the answers to each one. If you chose the baby, then family is most important to you. If you chose to answer the knock on the door first, you love adventure. If you ran out to grab the drying clothes first, your home was most important to you. If you answered the phone…lol, I can’t remember this one (maybe friends are most important? Keep reading…).
Of course, when this ice breaker was created, the original outcomes would have given us an interesting sense of personality and self-awareness – and it still might – but the answer might not be as pertinent to us these days since we seldom answer the door because it’s probably someone wanting us to buy something – or an axe murderer, very few of us hang the laundry out on a line, a whole lot of families have single parents or two working parents in order to survive, so many babies are in daycare, and don’t most of us practically hug our phones all day waiting for a beep or ping or song tone that indicates a message from someone. (Yes!! Another run-on sentence! You go, girl!) Typing that last line, er, run-on sentence, jogged my memory and I believe that when we chose the phone over the other options, it meant we placed our friends on the top of the list of answering first (I'm guessing my guess could be right!!).
[If you’re OCD, an anxious person, or generally stressed out lately, I offer my sincere apologies…you’re probably in the midst of a panic attack because you need to sort them all out. NOW! I'm with you!]
So how did you do? Were you surprised at the one you choose? Interested by the option meanings? Did it help you get a better grasp on yourself? What will you do with the (fun) result? Keep it up or think it through to another choice? Whichever you do, it’s a bit of you, and you are the only you on the planet. Rejoice it that!
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