Don't Accept the Premise of the Question

One of my favorite lines from The West Wing is Don't accept the premise of the question. It's actually a pretty cool concept, and it can be used in a variety of circumstances, not the least of which is when speaking to a reporter.  When someone asks you a question, the very act of answering the specific question lends credence to the question itself.  The people most adept at not doing this are politicians. At least they should be.  

When I was on live television with Anderson Cooper, he asked me whether I'd take my mom or dad out of a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic.  I'd actually answered this question in the affirmative when asked by a Los Angeles Times reporter, but when asked on television, I was prepared for it.  "That was my heartfelt answer, Anderson," was my riposte.  I'd be worried about my mom and dad.  "However, it's not so easy to take mom and dad home."  I'd changed the question from one about taking my parent out of a nursing home to one about how important nursing homes are when it comes to providing care for complex and frail older adults.

There are many opportunities in life, every day, not to accept the premise of the question.  Why would I want to run 8 miles today?  There might be days that I don't want to run 8 miles.  Running 8 miles every day provides structure to my day.  It creates resilience.  Yes, those are reasons for running 8 miles, but they don't necessarily state that I actually want to run 8 miles.  OK, maybe not the best example of not accepting the premise of the question, but my brain has already switched form awakening with that concept to getting prepared to run my 8 miles.  I had a good night's sleep, and I was definitely tired yesterday, so I'm getting a little later start to my day.  I'm not going to accept that premise, either.