There are More Questions Than Answers
Or Haven’t You Noticed?
A typical day in my life is full of questions.
Some days I gotta wonder …
What’s really going on? What’s it all about? When will it all end? Where are we headed? What even makes sense any longer? Who are we?
There are more questions than answers in life, aren’t there?
Well, especially if you’re a person who asks questions in the first place. Lots of people don’t. I know the thinkers tend to put the non-thinkers down, but oh, my, what must it be like to spend a whole day not asking questions?
For example, I read this today.
At our current consumption rate, we have by some accounts an estimated 47 years of oil left to be extracted.
The number varied as I perused the articles, but the information that I gleaned from a quick scan of about a dozen articles was that oil is finite and we are on course to run out.
Not in my lifetime most likely.
I’m almost 72, so maybe that qualifies me for a kind of guarantee that what I have left of life may not be impacted in the same way that say my granddaughter’s life will be. My granddaughter is 13. If we run out of oil in the next 50 years, she’ll be 63 years old.
Yikes!
The questions, prompted by a sense of urgency for my granddaughter’s future, suddenly start flowing. That’s all it takes and my brain is working overtime.
I’ve been asking questions since I was about 10 years old, maybe even earlier.
Much to the chagrin of my religious parents who took the scriptures literally and thus answered all my annoying questions with less than satisfying answers.
Many if not most of my questions tend to be about human nature and cultural expectations, tribal instincts and poor behaviors, history repeating itself and the selfish gene, resistance to change and ignorance. I’m a history buff and a lover of science fiction. I’m also intrigued with the psychological scenarios that tend to play out the same way regardless of the players. That strange combination prompts lots of questions. Most of the questions are centered around the following basic question.
What makes humans do what they do?
I really want to know. Because so often the species with the big brain is hellbent on making life harder rather than easier. If there’s an easy way to do something or a hard way, humans will pick the hard way time after time. And then complain, of course. Sometimes even regret their choice, but when given a chance to choose again, they choose the same path that got them into a mess in the first place.
Go figure, eh?
Don’t get me wrong. We’ve made progress. It’s just been sloooooow. Much, much slower than it needs to be. And often after making progress, we tear it all down, quickly regressing back, back, back into the Dark Ages.
So, the questions that transpired this morning once I scanned the dirty dozen articles went something like this …
· If people know that we’ll run out of oil soon, why are they so opposed to exploring alternative forms of energy?
· What on earth will my granddaughter’s life be like after I’m gone?
· Where do the leaders of the world stand on this important information?
· Why do we fight progress?
· Why do humans hate change so much that even if things would be better in the long run, they resist at their own peril?
Of course, if history informs us of anything, it’s that we tend to repeat history rather than learn from history. That tells me that humans are probably wired to behave a certain way and nine times out of ten our big brains actually tend to sabotage us not save us.
Sigh …
The older I get, after a lifetime of unanswered questions and witnessing resistance to change, I’ve become disenchanted with my own species. I was never a big fan. By age 16, I had seen enough bad behaviors from adults to understand that people weren’t my most reliable source of hope.
But now, I’m like, puh-lease, can I just change the channel?
Or maybe, I’ll just turn the TV off altogether. Bury my head in the sand, plug my ears, and pretend that everything is ok. Leave it to the next generation to solve and eat junk food, drink coffee, and play board games until I’ve experienced enough cognitive decline to join the non-thinking, unquestioning club.
Yeah, maybe not questioning things is a blessing not a curse.
I’ll probably never understand what makes humans behave the way they do. Right? I can’t stop wondering, however, what goes through a person’s mind when they read the twelve articles that I read this morning.
They probably don’t read them, I guess.
Why not? Why wouldn’t a person what to know what’s coming? Don’t they make plans based on good information? Are they afraid to face reality? Is it laziness? Why wouldn’t everyone be open to examining possible solutions to big problems?
And I’m off and running once again.
Teresa is an author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
