I’ve noticed a pattern in my articles. I tend to start out asking questions. Why do I do that? Why don’t I just get to the meat of the article? Do I think I will pique your interest more this way? See what I mean.
But seriously, why do I approach things this way? Well, maybe I feel that to understand anything, we need to ask questions. We can be presented with information, and find that it may not sink in. Unless that information has specific meaning, then it most likely gets set to the side.
To learn something, we need to have a desire for knowledge of some type or other. And usually the desire to know something is spurred by a question. How does it work? Why is this done this way? This question is the impetus that sets us on a quest for knowledge, whether it is the understanding of certain processes, or to see why things are the way they are, or to understand the meaning of a word.
That question is the starting point of a journey. The answer is the goal. And the search for that knowledge is the noble quest. And as I have said many times, once you reach a goal, you set a new one and go off on another journey. This is also true with a question. Once the first question is answered, the answer brings up more questions, and we start asking more because our thirst for knowledge deepens.
I was once told in a meditation that the answers I seek are the questions I ask. Huh? Without the proper questions, we never come across the right answers. But when we form questions, we make them as specific as we can to locate the answers the quickest. But in asking the question, in the back of our minds there is an answer, whether we know it or not. The forming of the question makes that answer apparent.
But questioning... what should we question? Everything! Yes, everything. Question policies, leaders, laws, processes, motivations, needs, desires, dreams. By questioning, we learn the ins and outs of everything. We understand on a deeper level than before. And we should not settle with “because that’s the way it is”, or “because I said so.” Those might be answers, and they may be because of certain situations or personalities. Right or wrong, the boss might want things done their way even if there is a better way. The answer may simply be that your boss is pig-headed. (I know I’ve had a few of them.)
Any of us that has been a parent can remember the incessant two-year-old constantly asking “why”. And how after a while, the answer simply becomes “because”. But there is still a desire to know, to learn.
We should want to know about everything from the workings of government, to religion, to computers, to math, to why people do what they do. Because once we have an understanding, we can make decisions based on that understanding. The worst thing one can do is make decisions without enough information to base their conclusions on. We want to make informed decisions, decisions that will be for the better.
So why questions? Because they are a necessary key to information and knowledge. They are the beginning of understanding. So please, ask questions. Does that work for you?