What do you love to do?

find myself asking the people around me, a question. I frequently ask our students, my co-teachers, and staff at our summer daycamp, the question “What do you enjoy doing? What do you want to do the most?
And usually the response is a puzzled, sometimes blank look, and silence..

Why isn’t that a question that we ask each other?
Why don’ t we know how to answer it?

Is it because its not asked enough? We haven’t been invited to explore it and don’t have a ready answer?

Is it easier to follow directions? to just color in the lines?

Is it out of fear? Being afraid to express pleasure in the tasks at hand?

Mostly, people don’t ever answer the question.
Instead, they wait for me to tell them what they should do, as their Teacher or Director would be expected to do.

But we all have choices. I have choices on how we divide and delegate work tasks as a supervisor. So why not find out from people the stuff they like and the stuff they hate? I would rather offer an opportunity to engage in tasks which bring pleasure, even joy where possible. Even in the mundane tasks, which we strive to share equally. If I get a particular satisfaction from the chore of vacuuming the rug, then it makes sense for me to be the one to do it. Someone has to do it so have it be the person who brings the most joy to the task, and there for by extension,into the present .