Questions and Answers

When I was a kid, I was an inquisitive little sh*t. I asked my parents EVERYTHING! What’s an artichoke (for the record, my Dad told me artichokes were small creatures that ran around in the desert and were difficult to catch)? 😃 Why is the sky blue? How old was King Tut when he died? How did Edison invent electricity? Remember, this was in the days before the Internet – no Google to help me (or my parents) out. Just me and a bunch of questions.

The thing I learned as a kid about questions was that each one had an answer. Questions about historical events? Answers. Questions on a test? Answers. Questions about going out with friends or staying out too late? Definite answers!

But something happened as I got older, as I broadened my horizons, as my thinking and questioning became more complex and philosophical. I learned that some questions have multiple right answers. Some questions lead to even MORE questions. And some questions simply don’t have an answer at all.

I think that’s both the joy and challenge of being human. Our logical brains want everything to line up and be in order. We want everything to have a clear-cut answer. We want everything to follow some sort of system or process that just…make sense. Our creative brain revels in the chaos (I use chaos in a good way here), the lack of structure, the lack of context. Our creative brain drives our intuition and fuels our imagination.

I remember the very first time I saw a French movie. I was in college. The movie ended. There was no neatly-wrapped-up closure. All I could think was: “What the f*dge just happened?” I was very confused – and almost angry – the movie didn’t provide a “now I can get on with my life” ending. I thought about that movie…a lot.

And it’s occurred to me (which reminds me of a joke…more on that in a minute), looking back, that was the whole point. Life isn’t about static, stale, convenient answers to our questions (like when we were kids or in Hollywood movies). Life is speculative. Life is unbound. Life is messy. Life isn’t limited by a single choice or a single answer. Life is a French movie.

Don’t have or don’t know the answer to that one question that keeps buzzing around in your head? That’s perfectly ok. Sometimes the answer is the journey itself. And the answer you have at the beginning of the journey might be different from the answer at the end of the journey.

Ok…on to the joke.

Did you know cottage cheese is not a cheese? It’s just occurred to me. Hahahahaha! Get it? Just…a…curd…to…me? <sigh>

Until next week.

Andy

(All written content created the old-fashioned way.)