What Do You Do?

I am so tempted to respond, “Whatever I want,” when people ask, “What do you do?” I am lazy, so I will just say I’m retired most of the time to avoid confusion. If I say I teach yoga, I’ve gotten everything from “that’s against my religion” to “that’s not enough of a workout for me,” when all I did was answer the question. If I say I am a speaker, bless their hearts, they need more detail on topics, and when I say the talk I gave a couple of weeks ago on Maslow’s Motivation and the Cyclic Impact of the Stages of Grief, told through the lens of Tina Turner, I thought I actually saw a brain short-circuit. Content creator, blogger, nemesis?

Who am I kidding. Even before I retired, it was tricky to say what I did. I have lived and learned, and those experiences provide a framework for me to do… well, whatever I feel like. Does it matter? Is it just a conversational question? Inquiring minds want to know, since I tend to overthink.

Maybe this isn’t an issue for most people. In the course of traveling — like this past week, going to events solo — there is a phase of talking to people I don’t know. This week, I think I’ll try this: answer a question with a question. In response to “What do you do?” I want to try, “What do you think?” Seriously, I am curious now.