october 13 cns

I just spent hours and hours (and hours, and hours) talking to my Rocker Step writing partner Daniel about, well, everything. And, like all conversations about "everything," it was largely about one thing. That one thing boils down to a question, and that question is only three letters (and one punctuation mark) long. Why? When I was in Grade 6, my homeroom teacher Mr. Whittaker told a room full of 11- and 12-year olds a story. The story was about a university exam. The exam had only one question on it. The question was only one word long. Why? Mr. Whittaker was a tremendous teacher. He was interesting, interested, and curious. I learned a lot from him, including but not limited to how to properly pronounce "Etobicoke" and how a teacher could communicate that you were in trouble without making you feel afraid. Anyway, Whittaker tells us this story, and we're like, yeah, okay, whatever, but then this goofy motherfucker makes us do the exam. Kind of. He asks us to answer the question.…