50 questions

I felt like I knew the essence of who he was the first time I met him at the Gillian Welch show in the fall of 2005. But I know very little about his past or his family, his goals and fears. As Jenn would say, we've been making it up as we go, discovering the details one by one. After having to admit to a friend that he also knew very little about me, he invented 50 questions.

50 questions is just what it sounds like plus a bottle of wine and a few rules. Drink every time you ask a question until the bottle is gone. Accidental questions count i.e. 'how do you spell Steven? There is no winning and no need to ask questions in order, just ask if they come to mind.

He set us up with cheat sheets and pens to record our questions and answers and we questioned away every last drop of wine. The questions started out very basic: names of family members?, how many cousins do you have?, what are your favorite foods and least favorite foods?. As the bottle drained our questions became less tangible, no one-word answer was possible or permitted. And by the end we were giving each other questions to ask just so we could answer them, keeping track of answers to all the questions, even the accidental ones.

We were left with papers filled with numbers and answers and paraphrases of responses to heavy questions as well as an exhaustion that only comes from having shared just the right amount of yourself with someone else, someone whom you know will keep those parts safe now that you have shared them.