Easy and Hard
Our Clients/Ourselves II
Getting to Yes the Hard Way
(a kinda contracting)
by Gregory Gross, MSW
1: It’s not easy.
2: No.
1: Not easy at all.
2: Yes.
1: Yes?
2: Not “easy.”
1: Oh! No!
2: No.
1: It’s hard.
2: Yes.
1: Hard!
2: Yes, Yes!
1: Very hard.
2: Very…
1: Hard.
2: Very hard…
2: And not easy.
1: Yes.
2: Yes.
1: Not at all.
2: No… not.
1: Not.
2: Yes.
1: Yes! No??
2: Oh, yes.
1: Yes.
1: Yes, oh, no!
2: It’s hard, isn’t it.
1: Oh, yes.
2: Hard.
1: Hard, hard, hard!
2: And that ain’t easy.
1: Not easy.
2: Not easy at all.
1: No.
2: Yes.
1: Not at all.
2: No.
1: Yes.
2: Yes.
1 & 2: Oh, Yes!
(Pause)
(Pause)
(Another pause, for Chrisakes!)
1: It’s not easy.
2: Nope!
1: Nope.
2: Nothin’ but nope.
1: Yes.
2: Oh, no.
2: Oh, yes.
1: No?
1 & 2: Yes, Yes, Yes!
Gregory Gross, MSW, is a professor of social work at The College of St. Rose in Albany, New York.