We are living in the best of times and the worst of times.
Truly, these are the best of times because we have so many choices and options.
But with so many choices and options comes the need to make decisions, and not merely one, but sometimes ten at a time.
And yet, even in these lovely times I notice that there are questions that simply do not get asked enough.
I can give you some examples:
- Who are you?
- Who are you really?
- When you leave the world, what do you hope to leave behind?
- What rocks your world?
- Whom could you not live without?
- Why are you here?
- What do people value most about you?
I could go on and on asking important questions that are not asked often enough. (And I do ask these kinds of questions in my Creativity Challenge, but that’s not really the point here.)
I am also interested in why we don’t ask important questions.
Is it because someone told us a long, long time ago that our important questions do not matter?
Are they not realistic, practical, and logical enough?
Do they seem childish? Silly? Ungrounded?
It seems to me that we are having a conflict between the new world that wishes to be more fully born and the old world, which really does not wish to relinquish it’s vice-grip on dictating reality.
If we do not start asking more important questions and answering them, things are not going to change.
Or they are not going to change quickly enough, which is where I suspect we are right now.
Things could change more quickly, but they don’t. And they won’t unless we start asking and answering questions.
Deep down, are we terrified of change?
Do we shy away from answering any questions because we like things to stay the same?
We need to let go of fear and embrace the answers to the questions.
This reminds me of this quote by Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters To A Young Poet in 1934:
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
We need to start living the answers. But it’s never going to happen, if we keep running away from the questions.
Question false logic more. We are not questioning assumptions enough.
Even if you have always assumed some belief to be true, question it. What about now?
Question everything. And then live your answers. Do not try to live the answers belonging to someone else or to the past.
Do not live someone else’s truth. Live your truth.
Why be false when you could be true, and in being true, inspire the world?
Comments on this entry are closed.
Christina, first of all, great quote by Rilke. Thanks for sharing.
Secondly, I fear that our avoidance of the profound questions you pose often reflects the utilitarian nature we often bring to our relationships with other people. It’s easy as we walk through this life hoping to accomplish our goals to try to “leverage” other people to bring the world closer in harmony with what we want.
We expect the wait staff to serve us our food on time. We want our friends to listen to us. We want our co-workers to help us with projects. We want our significant others to love us. We don’t want others to “be”; we want them to “do”. And in a maddeningly fast-paced world made even faster by digital technology, the trend toward asking important questions to and about others requires a patience (and, indeed, a recognized value) that many people sadly no longer understand.
But obviously these questions need to be asked, and our understanding needs to deepen since I can’t think about much else that is as important as our relationships and understanding with others. How many people really do that?
I’ll close with another quote I once heard memorably attributed to Dr. Samuel Johnson: “The true worth of an individual can be measured in the manner in which he treats another who can be of no possible use to them.”
I’ve always loved this quote. Do we want people to do for us, or do we just want to appreciate the fact of their being.
Happy writing,
Joe
Very thoughtful reply, Joe. I agree. I often find exchanges with the folks I just happen to meet to be the most pleasant. And few things cheer a person up as much as a random act of kindness towards someone they might never see again. But it was the first few thing you said about “leveraging” people that really got my attention. I usually talk about individuals leveraging their expertise and skills not other people. But you are right that much advice focuses on just what you said. I never really thought about how gross that is until reading your comment. I hope that everyone will steer clear of folks who coach them to “leverage people.” It’s not going to make the world a better place, is it?