TMI

Be careful when you pose a question. You may just get an answer you were not expecting. I found myself regretting asking a question yesterday because the answer, albeit raw and uncut, singed my eyebrows off. All I could do was laugh. The gentleman thought I was laughing at his detailed answer, yet the truth was that I was laughing at the fact that he felt comfortable enough to disclose such personal and embarrassing information about himself to me. 

Without going into particulars, let’s use some analogies, shall we?  Let’s pretend that a tree asks a depressed giraffe why he’s so depressed. 

And, this down in the dumps giraffe responds “My old feeding tree hurt my feelings. That tree was perfect. She was beautiful, quite tasty, and had a lot going for her, but because I put her on a pedestal I lost my own self-worth and instead of her nourishing me, I fed her with my kindness.”  

Miss Tree, seeing a wonderful giraffe before her, pondered ways to encourage him to try to eat again.  She continued, “well, I have tasty leaves and I’d like to explore my being your new feeding tree.” 

Mr. Giraffe lifted up his eyes on his hung down head to look up at Miss Tree. “Why me?” he asked surprised that Miss Tree would want to give him a chance.

Miss Tree was not expecting that response, but obliged and said, “Mr. Giraffe, you appear to be a perfectly wonderful giraffe, and I know that I have sweet leaves that will nourish you. Why not you?”  Mr. Giraffe dropped his eyes again. Miss Tree grew concerned about what that other tree had done to break the spirit of this seemingly perfectly normal giraffe.  She hesitated to ask, but curiosity overtook her, “What did that other tree do to you?” she asked disgusted at Mr. Giraffe’s state.

The flood gates opened and Mr. Giraffe rattled off his very personal story, detailing the mistreatment and agony cause by that retched old tree.  At that moment, Miss Tree regretted asking the question.  Why hadn’t she just let the giraffe deal with his issues on his own. Now she knew the details of the past which clouded her future a bit.

When too much information comes your way, what should you do?  Hopefully, you’ll handle it better than I did. Should I be flattered that there was enough comfort and trust present for him to open up to me?  Should I be alarmed about his willingness to tell me everything? I understand transparency, but are you being transparent for the sake of transparency or are you trying to talk me out of...ahem…being your new feeding tree?  I was quick to inform this gentleman that I will be using this encounter in a future book. I told him that I could see how the scene would play out with the varying perspectives present:  how the “old tree” had moved on not even thinking about "Mr. Giraffe," while he was talking to the "Miss Tree" about her and her foolish ways.

A self-portrait taken serendipitously. Photo: Amanda Gia 2014

My next book is taking shape before my last book’s editing is even complete.  I must tap into my creative energies while they are overflowing! Take a look at the photograph above.  My creativity is on autopilot and just using me as a conduit for expression. So, I guess he did me a huge favor by divulging too much information. Life’s experiences are going to prove profitable to me very soon. I have become very adroit at creatively utilizing the experiences that used to drive me crazy. If these things are going to happen to me, I guess I’ll just have to put them to good use.