In Douglas Adam's 5-book trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy, there's a running gag about the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. The characters find out that the Answer is 42. But Adams also posits that the Answer and the Question are mutually exclusive. If you know one, you can't know the other. So nobody can figure out what the actual question is. It amuses me because now that I'm 42, it would be nice if I had a few answers myself. I've been thinking about this as I get ready for a new addition to our family. If my son was asking me for some answers, what would I share? While I most certainly do not have the … [Read more...]
The Right Questions Make All the Difference
I was catching up with my friend Ian yesterday and our conversation turned philosophical (as it usually does when we are sharing a few craft beers). At one point he asked, "Do you think that American society is on the path to solving its problems, or are we not even asking the right questions?" This morning I'm thinking about how that same distinction can apply to us as individuals. We worry about coming up with the right answers, but we actually need to start by examining the questions we ask about our lives. The quality of our answers, in fact the possible answers we can come up with, are dependent on the questions. And I'm not … [Read more...]