Questionable?

In recent years, I have developed a set of questions that I ask when I am in a group of people I don’t really know and the conversation dies. These include:

What is the worst meal that you ever ate?
What is the movie that you have watched more times in your life than any other?
What was the first CD/record/album that you bought that wasn’t children’s music?
What was your first kiss? (I am hesitant to trot this one out now, as the last time I asked it, a surprising number of the twentysomething crowd had never kissed anyone and that made me sad.)
What was the worst date that you ever went on?
Do you have a ruined song (like this website)?
How do you say, ‘that’s Greek to me’ in your language? (This one doesn’t work so well now that I am surrounded by English speakers.)

It’s a set of questions that is personal and interesting, but not personal enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable. They’re not the most typical get-to-know-you questions, so people probably haven’t worked up a trite answer. Often, people's answers spark stories and the conversation takes off again.

Unsurprisingly, I trotted them out a few times during my recent retreat. I heard about blood-soaked suitcases in Kabul, a daughter’s love of The Jungle Book, and a first date on which the woman announced that she owned a gun and ‘had trouble with her last boyfriend.’ Good times.

Near the end of the retreat, after we had all told the stories about our calls and how we chose the path we are on, after I had talked about how I want to become a minister, the facilitator told me that I ask too many questions to be a minister.

If being a minister means not asking questions (even such superficial ones) or pretending that I am not curious, maybe that isn’t the path for me. I’m hoping that the Unitarians are more comfortable with questions and doubts than the Church of the Brethren is.