Yesterday morning I got up at 5:45am to workout at the YMCA, before work. After my workout, I hopped into the shower. Their showers are open, meaning that there are no dividers or curtains…it’s prison style. It’s me and one other guy in there. He’s about 60, Russian, and obese.

Now, most people to make conversation say, “How are you?” “How is life treating you?” “What’s going on?” “How is your day?” or “Goodmorning.” But not the Russian. His first words to me were, “Have you created anything this week?”

Wow!! That threw me. How dare he force me to think at 6:30am, naked, with soap in my eye.
Then I thought, what an amazing question.

The problem with “How are you?” or “What’s going on?” is that they’re ’stock’ questions, so they get stock answers ie “watching tv, picking up the kids, going to work, cleaning up the place, nothing, taking a yoga class, going out, skiing.” You’re just basically going through a checklist of what you’ve done that day or what happened.

When someone asks you “Have you created anything this week?” That forces you to completely focus on yourself and your relationship with the world around you. I didn’t know how to answer it at first, then I told him I created some new jokes, new friendships and a new way of looking at life in general. But even after that answer, my mind kept working, thinking about anything else I may have created, pain, happiness, joy, sorrow, attraction, drama, dinner, debt, scripts, the list goes on and on, muscle.

I read a quote that said “You’re either creating or destoying.”

So I ask you, “Have you created anything this week?”

Leo Flowers
Laff, Cry, ‘NDie