QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Who and what are we? Where did we come from, and where
are we going? What is the meaning of life? --There seem to be more questions
than answers, but, if you want to know who you are, try writing down a list of
questions on one side of a ledger and your best answers opposite them on the
other side. How you write your list, and what you put in it, will reveal a lot
about who you are. If you want to try this exercise, and you are serious about
it, please stop reading now, and start writing your list of questions and
answers before you read any farther. After you have gone as far as you can go
with your list, then come back and read the rest of this post.
Caution:
If you peek ahead before writing your list, you will jeopardize the integrity
of the exercise because that will contaminate the question of who you are, with
who you want to be.
Huh-uh, No-No! No Peeking!
What does your list and how you write it, say about
you? I think, regarding questions and answers, most people fall into one of two
categories: thinkers or doers. If you write every question you can
think of before you write any answers, and the list is still incomplete, you
are a thinker. If you write only the questions that you think are important,
and write at least some answers as you go, you are a doer.
The difference between thinkers and doers is profound:
It’s the difference between a theorist and a pragmatist, a philosopher and an
engineer, an idealist and a realist, an optimist and a pessimist, a Plato and
an Archimedes. If you are a Big-Bang Theory fan (the TV series, not the
scientific theory), Sheldon is the thinker and Penny is the doer. Caution: you should refrain from
judging one of these modes of questioning and answering as good or bad, because
the world needs both. For example, architects are thinkers, while carpenters,
plumbers and electricians are doers, planners are thinkers, and those who
implement the plans are doers.
Of course, as with any psychological categorization, almost
no one is one hundred percent thinker or one hundred percent doer, most of us
are a mixture of both, and then there are a few who are neither. They are
called politicians.
The extreme thinker, in addition to thinking about things,
thinks about thinking. As Penny would put it, “Good grief! Jibber-jabber about
jibber-jabber!” The extreme doer does, does and re-does just for the joy of
doing. As Sheldon would put it: “One should stay far away as possible from, and
out of the way of anyone who is so afflicted!”
So,
do you want to see my list?
--I thought you’d never ask!
Q: Why is there something rather than nothing? A: Because
by definition, nothing does not exist.
Q: Are there questions that have no answer? A: Probably.
And this may be one of them.
Q: Are there answers for which there are no questions?
A: Yes, and here are two of them: your consciousness,
and the universe.
Q: Can there ever be a theory of everything? A: No.
Because a theory of everything must have everything in it, otherwise it is not
a theory of everything, and if a theory has everything
in it, it is identical with reality, and is therefore not a theory.
Of course, this is just the beginning of my list, and in
case you are wondering, I wrote my questions first, and then came back and
started writing the answers, and no, I haven’t finished my list of questions
yet either. Also, I could write a paragraph or two, --maybe a book-- about each
of my question and answers. And, before you say it, yes, Penny, it is “jibber-jabber
about jibber-jabber!”
