If you had to compete at the Olympics (in this universe your country has no other athletes to send so you literally don't even have to be world class you just have to sort of know what to do but the stakes are HIGH) which sport would you be going for?
I posed this question on my Instagram last week and THOROUGHLY enjoyed the responses. I love when people actually answer questions in the comments- not just because of eNgAgEmEnT for the aLgoRiThM (but obviously that helps and I'm not above admitting its importance) but because I love hearing what people come up with when posed a completely random hypothetical. I actually think that creates ideal conditions for people to speak their truth; the parameters are clearly defined but exist in a universe where anything within them is possible and attainable, but the real-world consequences of answering are non-existent.
I wonder if people actually reveal their unspoken/unacknowledged dreams/preferences/passions when asked these kinds of question. And I'm only now realizing I've actually asked them a lot, of myself and others, throughout my whole life.
I have a brain that creates several dozen hypotheticals a day, almost completely of its own accord. They're usually really sad or scary, but sometimes they're fun and low stakes (which is critical to answering honestly, I think), like "what if I went on a talk show and the host asked me my take on _____" (this one comes up A LOT). And then I'll actually play out the scenario in one or a couple different ways, concentrating so hard that I realize I've furrowed my brow or started bobbing my head as if I'm actually responding out loud. And I realized this is when I'm completely honest. When I answer the question in my head, I'm responding as the talk show guest, but then evaluating that answer as myself in the present moment, outside of the context of the talk show, to determine if that's what I really think, or if I'm saying that to cater to popular opinion. It's either a brilliant thought experiment or an absurd waste of time. Obviously I'd prefer to think I'm just the best at thinking stuff.
So anyways, when someone responds to my complete hypothetical by saying something like "figure skating, that's the sport I would go to the olympics for", I don't feel like that's a random answer. I think that (or some aspect of it) must have been a dream or ambition at some point, or a passion realized too late in life (I can't be the only one who has a whole list of those, right?) and something called them to share it. And I'm so glad that they did. I think thats a beautiful insight into another human's experience.