I just finished a Frequently Asked Questions page dealing of course with writing. But sitting this evening looking for reasons to not work on book four, I started remembering other questions I’ve been asked, or been witness to. Such as…

My son (age 3) to my mother: ‘Do you have a vagina?’

My son to my mother: ‘Can I see?’

From a Sheriff’s Deputy, to me, as I climbed in the back of an aid car: ‘Can you check his breathing? He just ate his cigarette.’

From many, many people, variations of ‘What is that?!? A horse?’ as I walked my Irish Wolfhound.

The one and only Strider

From a friend, during a walk with me, and asked with a certain note of rising panic: ‘Is that bear poop?’

Followed by: ‘What do you mean it’s fresh? How fresh?’

The romantic marriage proposal: ‘Don’t you need health insurance?’

And he’s not short, folks.

Asked by a stranger from Scandinavia after hearing my American accent: ‘Do you have ice beers?’ (He meant polar bears; I wanted to give him directions to a bar.)

Asked by an ER doctor outside the hospital room where a young woman,  broken bones treated by me during a call, sustained as she tried to rescue her three year old daughter from raging whitewater, when the news came to us that the daughter died during the air lift: ‘Can you tell her? You’ve established a relationship with her.’

Me, very young and teary, asking my grandmother after a conversation with uncles: ‘Do freckles really come from walking too close behind cows?’

And so many more. What questions stay in your mind as the years go by?