Why

One of life’s greatest questions is ‘Why?’ Or at least, one of the questions most asked when folks find themselves in reflective mode.

For me, it is the most fascinating and yet paradoxically, unimportant of the Great Questions.

‘Why’ leads us on a search for that which is unknowable. The quest for an answer to ‘Why?’  is a fool’s errand but one for which many (most) of us can’t help saddling up and sallying forth. It compels us to seek that which explains all but for which there is ultimately no satisfactory answer.

I suppose you might wonder whether this is truly what I believe – it is – and if so, doesn’t that lead me inexorably to a bleak dead zone in which all things, all conditions or endeavors are ultimately pointless. I have been told by well-meaning people that I need to reconsider my citizenship in what they view as a land of hopelessness.

And yet, I maintain that I am one of the most hopeful people you could ever want to meet. I need not have a spiritual reason for all I do and see and experience. But those things and ideas I embrace must fit a cosmic structure which I find believable. And so, the search for a reason is (almost always) defeated by reason.

I do not claim to be incurious. I am driven to know how, for what purpose (no, not the same as why), when, where. A road trip with me is an adventure in noticing and wondering at that which is observed. I can drive a trip-mate wild with my constant, verbal contemplation of the purpose of a piece of machinery or the straightness of a farmer’s tilling.

I want to know everything I can about the farmer’s methods and equipment. But as to the origin of the farmer, I find myself utterly uninterested.

I simply don’t choose to explore questions for which there is no provable answer.