If The House Were On Fire

Cliff and I have a game we play – The Question Game – on “dates” or car trips or otherwise quiet moments. We take turns asking each other questions … these aren’t the usual, “what do you want for supper?” sort of questions that define daily married life. Instead, The Question Game challenges us to ask questions that dig deeper into who each other is: our childhoods, our crazy ideas, what we’d most like out of the future. It inspires creativity, challenges our thinking, and helps me learn better who exactly this guy I married really is.

A year or two ago, one of us asked the question, “If the house were on fire and our kids were safe – what are the things you’d grab on the way out?” Hearing each other’s answers was fun: I like knowing what objects he most treasures because they reflect the best points of our life together. And I think our approaches to the question reveal something about ourselves too. 

Yesterday I stumbled across a photo on Slate.  The photo was part of a series that asked individuals to take a picture of the things they’d grab if their house was on fire. The photos were beautiful collages of life. Here’s a link to the series: If The House Were Burning.

I decided to take my own “House On Fire” photo, which you see above. I’d grab the framed sketches of our children that Cliff did (Maggie’s shown here – but I’d grab both, of course), Brown Doggy and Monkey (our kids’ favorite stuffed animals), the journal I’ve kept since the kids were born, the typewriter Cliff gave me for my birthday a few years ago, and the framed photo of my grandparents on their wedding day. The computers are all backed up, my wallet and clothes can be replaced, but these things I don’t want to lose.

So here’s my challenge to you: ask your partner (or best friend) what he or she would grab on the way out. If you’re lucky, it will be a reminder of some of the highlights of your lives together. It will certainly reflect his or her values and interests. If you’re really up for a challenge, take a photo and post it here.

For more questions from The Question Game, visit here or here.

PS - We have friends who experienced a tragic fire recently. I don't want to make light of potentially dangerous or difficult situations. My sincere hope is that this post doesn't inadvertently cause pain to those who have experienced tremendous loss.