Do you know what to do to succeed in life? Do you need help in finding your way?
You may have to find someone willing to assist you. When you do, this person may tell you that you will have to . . .
Answer My Questions
Confused about where my life was headed,
I sat, looking off into space, on my therapist’s couch.
I’d been seeing him for almost four months,
and he considered me an absolute grouch.
He had trouble understanding why I acted as I did
and wanted to help me find the reason why.
So he said he would ask me five questions
to get to the bottom of the matter,
and hoped I’d give the process a try.
The first question, “Who is the most important person
in your life?” made me quiver and rattled my brain.
I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face
and muttered, “This is hard for me to address,
please let me explain.”
Not accepting my hesitancy, he stated,
“We must move on, but if we have time,
we can come back to this one later today.”
The second question, “What do you see yourself
doing ten years from now?” left me bewildered,
so I said, “I’m not sure what to say.”
He looked at me with a weird expression on his face
and groaned, “You’ve got to make an effort
to make this work, and I wish you would.”
Before I could respond, he presented the third question,
“What don’t I know about you that I should?”
I stared at him in disbelief and replied,
“I have nothing at all to hide or, for that matter, to tell.”
“Since you seem to be reluctant to share
your most personal thoughts with me,
I don’t think our session is going well.
“If I can’t get you to work with me, I might have to resort
to another technique called hypnotherapy
and, in that way, delve into your mind.
“But first let us attempt to address another question,
‘What would you do if you ruled the world?’
and through your response see what we find.”
“I would be a king,” I yelled, in my strongest voice,
"and make all the decisions for those under my rule.”
This proclamation appeared to upend him
in a way I couldn’t have predicted, and he shouted,
“This session is over! You’re behaving like a fool.”
Well, we never did get to his fifth question,
as I frustrated him to no end, and he became irate.
I thought about trying to calm him down
by scheduling a follow-up appointment,
but the glare in his eyes made me hesitate.
So I got up from the couch and headed for the door,
without saying a word.
Not knowing I could hear him, he mumbled,
“Choosing this profession was utterly absurd.”
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