Questions and questioning are integral to listing. This seems odd because questions are indicative of uncertainty, speculation, doubt, a lack of knowledge. To question is to waver, waffle, and sometimes take a pratfall. A question is the banana on the ground, waiting to trip you up. Got a question and you are momentary a sitting duck. Your question had better be a good one or you will appear to be ineffectual in the eyes of your peers.

Conversely, a great question, is one that, like an errant horse or dog hair, one that others have had on the tip of their tongue for some time but have been unable to spit out. Put forth at the right time and it gives one leader status. Yes, articulating the right question at the right moment in time to the right audience can be life-changing. The double whammy comes when one responds to a question with a question. Ka Pow, or is it Ka Pow? The latter does not seem to have as much punch.

Questions also beget questions. The universal brain can deal with the infinite number – the universal brain processes, sorts, prioritizes, and ultimately comes up with answers to all, even the downright dumb questions.

Lists in relation to questions. The first one this list taker must consider is where is my pen? The second is where is my notebook? Easily, these two unsaid questions are at the top of every list. There is then a moment of hesitation in which the list taker hesitates before putting the pen to the notebook page. This is because the neural pathways need time to fire. Even a fifth of a second is a pause. The pen, directed by the hand, moves across the page. This is when it all then seemingly appears to happen. Those in the audience, relieved, start clapping.

The internal list is consulted and the external list is created. The consult – the conscious first asks the subconscious, do I need to do this? Yep. Infinite is subsequently reduced to finite.

Let’s take a rather mundane example and run with it. The list taker asks, do I need vegetables, meat, fruit, dairy items? Then categorization occurs, as in fruit, do we need bananas? More questions are then forthcoming, as in organic? Inorganic? Dole? Chiquita? Ripe? Not so ripe? And of course, will we need one, two, or three big or little bunches this week?

The next question, uttered before heading out to the store might be where did I leave my list? This question really is of little consequence because externalizing the needed items enabled the list taker to internalize them. It will undoubtedly appear later, upon your return from the store. There it will be, on the kitchen table, where you left it.

And once the bulging groceries are put away, the list again sighted, the question is (drum roll) what do I do with my list? Here, most of the time they are crumbled up and tossed into recycling bin, where they then become a part of the waste stream.

No two shopping lists are ever the sam,e for next week, bananas will be too expensive, apples will be on sale, and grapes will be supplanted by raisins.

116. 4/26/17: The ABC’s of Listing, R is for Routine