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why, why, why, why, why, why, why .....
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
A modest proposal: For five minutes a day -- just five minutes -- stop using the word "why." It's just five minutes.
A person who doesn't ask "why" is frequently and frequently rightfully called a fool. The dissecting of current circumstances can lead to helpful clues about what not to repeat in future or, alternatively, what to repeat. Asking "why" in this context makes very good sense. No sense in being a bigger jackass than you need to be.
But there is another aspect to circumstances as well: Asking "why" may offer clues by way of response, but those clues do nothing to eradicate what current circumstances actually are. And in this realm, asking "why" can become a means of sidestepping or camouflaging or trying to escape from what actually is.
And it is in this sense, perhaps, that asking "why" could use some leavening ... a little five minute recognition that while there is no sense in being a bigger jackass than you have to be, asking "why" has the very distinct potential to make you an even bigger jackass running around trying to escape what is clearly inescapable.
Just five minutes.
Your thoughts?
Just noodling.
A person who doesn't ask "why" is frequently and frequently rightfully called a fool. The dissecting of current circumstances can lead to helpful clues about what not to repeat in future or, alternatively, what to repeat. Asking "why" in this context makes very good sense. No sense in being a bigger jackass than you need to be.
But there is another aspect to circumstances as well: Asking "why" may offer clues by way of response, but those clues do nothing to eradicate what current circumstances actually are. And in this realm, asking "why" can become a means of sidestepping or camouflaging or trying to escape from what actually is.
And it is in this sense, perhaps, that asking "why" could use some leavening ... a little five minute recognition that while there is no sense in being a bigger jackass than you have to be, asking "why" has the very distinct potential to make you an even bigger jackass running around trying to escape what is clearly inescapable.
Just five minutes.
Your thoughts?
Just noodling.
1
Comments
“What do you mean three?” I asked. “I only asked one.”
Daniel almost fell off his cushion laughing. ““Is that incense?”, “What's difficult?”, “How on earth did you know...?” and “What do you mean three...?” Would you like to go for five questions in a row? I must have looked crushed because Daniel got a sympathetic look on his face. Unfortunately, that only made me feel worse. “Run and go grab a pen and paper off sensei’s desk,” he said. A second or two passed before I registered that he wanted me to go now. I jumped up a little too fast trying to make up the second and ended up tripping over the cushion and almost falling. I made it back without further incident and held out the pen and paper to Daniel.
“The pen and paper are for you,” he said. “Now sit down; I’m going to dictate a list. Write each down on a separate line.” Daniel began dictating almost immediately and I had to scramble to not miss anything. “Blue, consciousness, 42, dolphin, primitive...” He continued rattling of this list as fast as I could write until I had written on every line on both sides of the paper. I couldn't even stop listening long enough to tell him that we had run out of lines and so I started a second column. About the time I got to the bottom of the first side again he stopped. “There you go,” said Daniel cheerfully.
“There I go, what? I asked, completely confused.
“Now you have all the answers,” he quipped.
“But Daniel,” I protested, “this is gibberish! What are the questions?”
“What questions;” he asked furrowing his brow and raising his eyebrow, “there are an infinite number of questions?”
“The questions to these answers you just gave me!” I was really beginning to think I was in the twilight zone or something.
“Ah those,” he said, “Why do you want those?”
“The answers are no good without the questions!” Yup, definitely on a tour of the twilight zone and Daniel was the captain of this tour.
“Quite right,” he said, a satisfied look on his face, “forget the answers for a bit and seek the right questions first.”
Why?
Because I'm telling the "because" to the 6 and 3 year olds asking "Why?"
So there!
Does she know where Leprechauns live?
My Kids have learned to torture me with it, along with the arguments that materialise out of nothing.