Why?
From the time we’re small we want to know why things happen the way they do. Why do the stars go away during the day? Why did my puppy have to die? As we get older, we just seem to ask more and more “why” questions. It’s just part of our nature. As parents, teachers, and preachers, we do our best to answers people’s questions about why things happen the way they do. I don’t ask “why” questions anymore because I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s really only one answer to every “why” question you could ask. It comes down to what a tired mother says when her kid won’t stop asking questions and when they’re not satisfied with the answers: “Honey, that’s just the way it is.” Isn’t that really the ultimate answer to every question? And you could say, “It’s God’s will. It’s the way he put things together.” The answer is the same. There really is no answer. That’s just the way it is.
I think part of getting older is recognizing that a lifetime of searching still leaves us with unanswered questions, and with getting older comes the kind of wisdom that tells you that maybe it’s better to just accept things they way they are instead of asking why and trying to figure out how to could change them. Ultimately, I guess, nothing was meant to be changed. It was meant to be the way it is. The problem is that we are finite creatures and are constantly asking questions of the infinite with the puny computers we call brains. We just don’t have the capacity to really take in the infinite, do we?
Some may say, “That’s too simplistic an answer. Some questions can be answered. For instance, why did my daughter die? Because that guy was driving drunk when he hit her.” There seem to be events where an effect logically follows a cause, but then there are still these other questions. Why is it then that so many people who aren’t drunk are in accidents and end up hurting or killing somebody totally unintentionally? It happened. Or why is that so many people who drive drunk never have accidents and never get tickets? Inevitably you have to keep asking a “why” question until exhaustion sets in and you say, “Well, I guess that’s just the way it is.”
I think part of getting older is recognizing that a lifetime of searching still leaves us with unanswered questions, and with getting older comes the kind of wisdom that tells you that maybe it’s better to just accept things they way they are instead of asking why and trying to figure out how to could change them. Ultimately, I guess, nothing was meant to be changed. It was meant to be the way it is. The problem is that we are finite creatures and are constantly asking questions of the infinite with the puny computers we call brains. We just don’t have the capacity to really take in the infinite, do we?
Some may say, “That’s too simplistic an answer. Some questions can be answered. For instance, why did my daughter die? Because that guy was driving drunk when he hit her.” There seem to be events where an effect logically follows a cause, but then there are still these other questions. Why is it then that so many people who aren’t drunk are in accidents and end up hurting or killing somebody totally unintentionally? It happened. Or why is that so many people who drive drunk never have accidents and never get tickets? Inevitably you have to keep asking a “why” question until exhaustion sets in and you say, “Well, I guess that’s just the way it is.”
posted by Old Timer at 11:04 AM
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