**WARNING***
The following article may be hard to digest. You may want to stop reading, discredit the things that I say, or even throw your laptop out the window. I challenge you to keep reading and use me as a guide.
These posts have discussion threads at the bottom, so don’t be afraid to leave a comment!
***ENJOY***
When we need to answer the hard questions, can we?
Yes.
I find that throughout my life I have always asked “why” about nearly everything. From sports, news and music, to religion, psychology and social norms, I wonder why the world works the way it does, and how we interpret it.
However, I’ve realized that asking “why” to someone else is not always so easy. It seems that if we haven’t answered the hard “why” questions for ourselves, then it becomes difficult to answer someone else when asked the same question. I’m not saying that we should never ask these hard questions, but they can lead people to insights that they may not be ready for, or lead people to possibilities that are hard to digest.
This past week, I had the privilege to visit Colorado with my sister. We hiked, explored and made many memories. It gave us time to talk and gain insight to each other’s opinions. I asked her many times how she viewed the world and why she viewed it in that way. We had some great conversations. But many times I got pushback from her, almost like she didn’t want to answer the question (of course, these were questions that most people are uncertain about. i.e. “do you believe in God?”).
There are several types of these hard questions. They range in a spectrum on the topics of religion (and death), what our true passions in life are, or why we view the world the way we do. Each carries its own challenges, but they can be equally as difficult to answer.
What’s peculiar to me is that there are many ways to respond to a hard question, and instead of trying to formulate some kind of answer, it feels easier to just say “I don’t know” and move on.
We seem to avoid these kinds of questions often, replacing them with “what kind of sauce should I get with my McNuggets?” We like to have answers to our problems and uncertainties, and when we don’t, it makes us uncomfortable.
Another tactic that prevents us from answering these questions is what I like to call “creating a wall”. We fabricate a barrier-to-entry to these kinds of philosophical and life-critical questions. When I was younger, it seemed to me that questions of great magnitude were too hard to think about. There’s an internal dialogue that says “someone else will figure that out, it’s too challenging for me.” But these great life questions are ones that every person in the world faces, meaning your answer is no more right than anyone else’s answer.
“We fabricate a barrier-to-entry to these kinds of philosophical and life-critical questions.”
Even though anyone can answer these hard questions, it certainly doesn’t mean they are easy to answer. But it means that we can try. Both for the sake of conversation with others and to find meaning in our own lives.
Right now, in the Age of Media, it is easy to distract ourselves from the hard questions. Instead of asking ourselves “is this job really right for me,” or “why do I get so anxious all the time,” we could ask “what kind of facial moisturizer does Donald Trump use?” Most answers are a hop, skip, and a click away. We often forget that the answers to the most important questions are not on a Google or Quora website, but are somewhere inside us.
Answering hard questions takes effort. It’s hard (no pun intended)! But the answers are found nowhere but within yourself. We can spend our whole lives looking to others for their opinion on the world. But this will lead us nowhere, and enables us to make no progress in laying down the foundations of who we truly are.
Quote:
“The answers to hard questions are found nowhere but within yourself!”
Believe it or not, the world wants to hear YOUR side of the story! And that story is one that unfolds as we navigate the waters of our minds. This may seem daunting, but simply entertaining our hard questions can lead us to our paradise island.
So, like the warning at the beginning of this post said, challenge your thinking today. Treat the world like you did when you were 5 years old. If a random “why” question floats into your head, don’t dismiss it. Care for it like a baby, nurture it, and give it life.
Answering this question may bring doubt, fear or confusion into your life, but only briefly. Stay the course, and you may learn a thing or two about the world. And you might just get in touch with who you are along the way.
-Zackary