The Question Why?
The word “why” is only three letters, but perhaps it is one of the most important and complicated worlds that we use as reasoning, inquiring, curiously conscious human beings. But it is also a very deep question that many times has no easy answer.
Remember that in order for us to answer and comprehend the question “why,” we all must have a basic knowledge of many things. For example, if I tell Mike that Kelley is at the hospital, Mike will ask why? I might say to Mike “she fell down the steps and twisted her ankle.” Something as simple as this requires quite a bit of knowledge. First, Mike would have to know what falling is, what steps are, what an ankle is, what a twist is, and would also have to have knowledge already of how Kelley arrived at the hospital and what exactly a hospital is and what does it do. Already knowing all these things, they are already understood and no further explanation is needed.
Now this may seem silly, but it is important. Because if someone didn’t already KNOW these things and what they represent, they would have to ask why 30 times to get an answer. Now we go deeper into the “why.” Why was Kelley home instead of at work? Why did she fall … was it a slip on the ice or did she lose her balance? Why was it her ankle that she injured? If she was carrying something, why wasn’t she more careful as to not cause a fall? Why did she go to bed late and be so tired that she was simply not watching her step? Why was this the same ankle she injured before? Why did she go to the hospital ER instead of a local a clinic? How did she get there? You see … this could literally go back to her childhood and her ancestors … and even back to the origin of time itself.
Someone once asked Carl Sagan how to make chili from scratch. He replied “well, first you have to build a universe.” You see ALL things are connected and always have been.
Sometimes we just have to accept something and limit the exorbitant amount of “why’s” out of pure simplicity. This entire story could be summed up as “Kelley fell and hurt her ankle so I drive her to the hospital and it seems she’ll be fine.” Because most of us already know all the other extraneous information, we can just accept this statement as “it just is.” And then just wish her well and be on our way.
There are millions of things occurring in this vast universe that we are trying to figure out why, yet the Universal Laws that direct ALL things just ARE. It just IS, and cannot be explained or defined no matter how many “why’s” we can come up with. Sometimes, it’s just easier to say the sides of two magnets are attracted to each other, whereas the other two sides repel each other. Just because that’s the way it IS. Some things have no answers no matter how many why’s and how many years we ask why … they just ARE. Every thing is as it should be. This may be difficult to understand at first. But ALL things are the result of cause and effect and they exists as a result of collective causes and the effects of those causes. The world as it exists, is a collaboration of all cause and all effect. Why? Because it just IS.
Just a thought …
Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
