“What If…?”

 I heard an author make the point that when screenwriters and novelists get stuck they ask the “What if…?” question.  “What if a meteor falls from the sky? or What if the protagonist falls in love?” 

From there he encouraged and challenged families to sit down together and ask fifteen “What if…?” questions.  “What’s going to happen if you do this experiment is that about two days later a couple of those things will stick in your brain and you will not be able to not do it.  Because you will realize there is a beautiful story waiting for you that you didn’t know you could live.”

So on this uncharacteristically cool July Saturday while we looked out across our back lawn and Christina made herself a cup of chia tea I asked, “What if we owned a big house?”  It set off a firestorm of response.   

“We would open it up for young adults to live with us in community” was our immediate answer.  “Who do you think would be interested in living with us?”  “I’ve been texting with one of our former student friends…maybe she would.”  “And there are others who have expressed interest in the past.”  

Then we wondered how the community would look.  “They could have responsibilities as well as having the jobs they were working.”  “Of course we would have to charge some rent.”  Diana chimed in that it would be a full time job just to keep meals going.  “Maybe we could have a person who could come as the cook,” I offered. 

“Would we get that big house we like down the street?” someone asked.  “That was a nice house, wasn’t it?”  Diana pointed out, “We would need to have a bedroom with a private bathroom and a setting area so we could have personal space when we needed it.”  “How would I fit into the community?”  Christina wanted to know. 

“We should have some bigger purpose than just living together” I said.  Diana came in with an idea, “We could all read a book or listen to something and discuss it.  Everyone would come with the understanding that participation is part of the community.”  I added, “We should start a church, too, so that there is opportunity to live out our discoveries in a wider community.” 

Christina asked the ultimate question, “Are we just talking or are we serious about this?”

Not a bad start for one question about owning a big house I would say.