大象传媒

I lost a friend recently, Zoe. His name was Adrian and I鈥檝e been thinking about him a lot. He was a warm man, a wise man, a wickedly funny man, a big brother figure, a mentor to me and others, who helped us to find our way by asking questions. He鈥檇 listen to me fret about a thing I was hoping to do and he鈥檇 go: 鈥淲hy not do it now?鈥� Asking incisive questions like that is a real skill in life, one I鈥檝e tried to acquire myself over the years, in my work as an interviewer, and I鈥檓 writing and recording short stories at the moment about encounters I鈥檝e had with remarkable people, from the likes of Tiger Woods and Scarlett Johannsson to Zahra, a refugee who came across the Channel in a boat on Christmas Day, and in every case, as I listen back to the tapes, the questions we ask each other open us up, until we are just two humans, sharing a moment, learning.听

听

Everybody wants answers from Jesus in the stories Christians tell, but he very rarely answers directly; and instead asks question after question: 鈥淲ho do you say I am?鈥� 鈥淒o you want to be well?鈥� 鈥淒o you love me?鈥� He asks Peter that one three times in the weeks after Easter, matching the three times Peter denied knowing him when everything was going wrong. 鈥淒o you love me?鈥� 鈥淵es, I do.鈥� 鈥淒o you love me?鈥� 鈥淵ou know I do.鈥� 鈥淒o you love me?鈥� And in those questions, it becomes obvious that love flows both ways, because when they鈥檙e asked right, and the answers are heard, questions can allow us to be ourselves.

听

So I ask myself a lot of questions these days,听some of which might resonate with you: Why not say something? Why not put your arms around her? Why not tell him that you love him? Why not call them after all these years? Why not say sorry? Why not be kind?听 Why not forgive yourself? Why not give yourself away? Why not dare to do whatever it is you long to do? And as Adrian would say: 鈥淚f not now, then when?鈥�