Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Children are easy to read as they haven’t yet perfected how to “act.” Adults are different, and I work with adults, so I have to ask them questions.

Children don’t walk normally unless they are thinking about something else. They tend to scamper or duck their head and half run. They think that their parents won’t notice them running through a public place where they shouldn’t be running.

Adults, on the other hand, have learned how to “act.” I guess we have learned how to behave, but I think the word “act” better describes us. We mask what we are thinking behind a facade of proper behavior.

If I want to know what my 4-year-old grandson is thinking, I just look at him.

I don’t, however, work with my 4-year-old grandson. He hasn’t yet mastered calculus and computer programming. I work with adults. The only way I know of understanding what an adult is thinking is to ask them and ask them and ask them and…well, you get the idea.