But when he
asked
"... what will I be out of it ...?" and not "... what will
I
get
out of it ...?", I knew then that he would
love
it: he'd
asked
an
ontologicalquestion!
"That's a great
question"
I
said.
"What you'll be out of it, depends largely on what you
want to be out of it - and more
powerfully,
on what you
intend
to be out of it, and what you invent yourself to be out of
it;
essentially,
what's available is the
freedom
to be any
way
you want to be.".
His retorted challenge followed quickly, yet not necessarily
unexpectedly. He didn't make any request for clarification. He
essentiallysimply
outright denied the
possibility
of what I'd proposed: "But we don't have the
freedom
to be any
way
we want to be. That's just not
true!"
he protested.
He was
listening
- that much I could tell, but he was mostly silent. So I
stoppedspeaking
... and waited. Then he
said
"You know, I've been
listening
to you
talk
for about an hour, and to be quite honest, I don't understand anything
you've been
saying.".
Then, turning to
face
me, he
said
"But whatever it is you've
got,
I want it.".