"What do you think, Sharon?"

I've been noticing a strange thing of late: people keep asking me for my permission or approval before doing things.

I don't know why. I have no authority. I avoid authority like the plague. I try to avoid responsibility as much as possible as well, but I understand I have to shoulder a bit of that from time to time. Authority is (or at least should be) entirely arbitrary, and I'm reasonably sure I have none.

So people come to me and say "What do you think? Should we to this? Can we do that?" and I smile and nod and say "Sure!" wondering why they would ask me in the first place.

I think some of them have finally noticed that, half the time when I say "Sure!" I'm really saying: "I can't see any harm in that, and beyond that point I don't care". The other half of the time I'm just agreeing with them. I like to be agreeable.