Ask Me Anything: There's Always One Wise Guy
- Anna Maria Junus
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
The title of the blog post was "Ask Me Anything: But Keep it Clean"
So Paul, who is the guy in charge who convinces us all to take these Ultimate Blog Challenges, decided to ask me the following questions:
How would you react / what would you do if someone asked you something NOT clean? Would you ignore it? Delete it? Skirt around the question? And, as a follow-up, WHY would you do that? I'm convinced Paul is the guy in class who, when the teacher told everyone to bring out their Math books, he said, "Why? What if I don't? What if a tyrannosaurus rex ate my books? What if they got struck by lightning? What if my dog ate them?" The answer to the string of questions is, "Nope. I wouldn't answer it."
The answer to why? "Because I don't want to. Because I set up a boundary and you decided to knock it down." I'm big on boundaries. Remember before we all carried tiny computers in our pockets that are devices for the government to keep track of us? We call them phones. Yeah, well, before that we had phones attached to walls. We didn't carry them around with us. And when the phone rang, everyone rushed to answer it. It was considered rude not to answer the phone. By the way - that phone only had ONE job. Just one. It didn't have games to play. It didn't have a calendar. It couldn't go on the internet, and it didn't even have a phone book. It did one thing. Sometimes (I know you'll be shocked with this) I didn't answer the phone! That's right. I let it ring. Why? Because I didn't want to answer the phone. Because I was busy. Because I didn't want to talk right then. Because I figured, "It's my home, and if I don't feel like talking to someone, I don't have to." Back then, you could always make the excuse that you were out or in the shower. The point is, I had boundaries, and I wasn't going to answer questions when I didn't feel like it. It's July 2026, and currently Canada is having a census, which is making some people angry. Why? Because on the long form, some of the questions are personal - and people don't want to answer them! The problem is that there is jail time and fines threatened if you don't. Some people are even afraid to say how many bedrooms they have in their house. Yes, there is the fear that the government will start demanding that you let strangers live with you. (It was done in Nazi Germany). My opinion on this is that it's only a bedroom if there's a bed in it. An office? Not a bedroom. A sewing room? Not a bedroom. A prayer room? Not a bedroom. A gaming room? Not a bedroom. A puzzle room? Not a bedroom. So a single person living in a large house could have just one bedroom and all the other rooms have different purposes. Anyway, I digress. So the answer to a question that I stated up front I didn't want will be..."I'm not answering because I don't want to."
Makes sense to me! I agree with you about everything you said. If someone asked me inappropriate questions, I wouldn't answer them either. And I remember just letting the phone ring when I didn't feel like answering. And excellent point about the number of bedrooms! I think even if you have a bed in there, if it's buried under storage, or there's another purpose for it, like it's an office, I'd probably not count it.
Paul’s string of questions made me laugh, but I completely agree with your answer. A boundary doesn’t stop being a boundary simply because somebody else is curious. and “because I don’t want to” is sometimes (most of the times!) a perfectly complete answer! 🤗
I appreciate your remarks on the subject. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Boundaries are definitely important! I think the tricky part is finding the balance between protecting our privacy and still being open to conversations and participation.