Without
Answers
“A
well-educated mind will always have more questions than answers.”
Helen
Keller
If there is any wisdom
that comes with age, it is to learn to live with the questions that
have no answers. When I was younger, I had the answer to almost
everything. If I didn't have one readily available, I'd manufacture
it on the spot, and then swear to its validity. Some of us were the
designated “fixer” in our families, and that badge, which seemed
like a medal at one point, became an albatross at another.
In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus
promises that we will receive the answers to all our questions if we
just keep asking. What I've found to be true is that the
answers to our questions deepen as we age. We move from the
superficial, where the answers are clear and singular, to the depths
where answers becomes relative, and frequently, debatable. There is
no one-size-fits-all answer for so many questions we have about life
and our place in it. If you're anything like me, you jump from one
plank to the next, finding some of them not so substantial, and some
even submerged. We can either become disillusioned, or we can learn
to live with ambiguity. We don't have all the answers—and that's
okay.
Call me wishy-washy, but
I am getting more comfortable living within the existential
questions. Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Where is
humanity headed and why? What am I supposed to be doing, thinking,
feeling? These are big questions with more than one answer—they're
like living in a freaky fun-house where the mirrors are all distorted
in different ways. Long and skinny one minute, compact and fat the
next. Life turns out to be a revelation rather than a linear event—it
reveals itself over time, either opening up and expanding, or
telescoping down to the narrowest possible aperture.
The one thing we cannot
do, in my opinion, is stop asking the questions. We cannot stay at
the superficial levels of existence, and refuse to go deeper. I know
it feels better and it's certainly easier to have all the answers,
but life requires us to evolve. And evolution consists of asking
questions for which we have no answers, and following where they
lead.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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