Brief conversations can be amusing at times.  I'm not talking about an argument between someone and their spouse or significant other though they are often involved in what I am suggesting.  Rather it has to do with those often mindless brief pseudo-conversations.  Specifically, I am talking about rhetorical questions that often take the place of brief but meaningful conversational questions.  Rhetorical questions are asked when an answer is not expected.  Most often they are used to make a point. But in a relationship, they serve no purpose but are used to simply let the other know what we are thinking.  I have a few of my favorites - some asked of me and some I ask of my wife.  No answer required.

 

One of my favorites is when someone comes home after running errands or whatever they were doing and upon seeing us, the question is asked - "Are you home?"  Duh.  If you can see me then I must be home.  And if it isn't me, then who were you expecting?  As I say, I can smile at this since I have asked the question as well as having been asked it.

 

Another comes when you are doing something obvious, like reading the paper or maybe cooking diner.  In walks the person and asks, "What are you doing?"  Sometimes you want to answer that you are cooking up a concoction laced with arsenic to poison them, or maybe you have a favorite magazine hidden inside the paper.  In any event, what you are doing is obvious, or at least it is to you.  Again, no answer required unless you want to start an argument with nothing more said for the rest of day and night.

 

The third one that comes to mind is when you grab the car keys and are on the way out the door.  You know what's coming.  "Are you going out?"  You want to say, "No. I'm just taking the keys out for some fresh air or for a walk around the block.  You don't, however, knowing that if you do walk out the door after saying that, you're liable to hear a string of invectives all the way to the car.  That only gives the neighbors more fodder to gossip about.

 

The last one has to do with dinner.  Having told spouse/significant other three times what is for dinner, you know the question is coming.  "What are we having for dinner?"  You won't dignify the question with an answer that is already known.  But you do wonder if you should print a menu and post it on the kitchen wall.

 

Maybe we ask these rhetorical questions only when we are in a comfortable relationship and feel secure in knowing we can ask them without a nasty retort.  Maybe they are a sign of a healthy relationship.  I'm not sure.  All I know is that you can probably add a few questions of your own to my list.  Feel free to do so since I feel my rhetorical questions are getting stale and I need something new to keep things going.