At three years old, or is it five, most children incessantly ask why. “Why do I have to brush my teeth?” “Why is it raining?” “Why does the Easter Bunny bring eggs?” Why, why, why?
Then comes high school in the blink of an eye. There you learn the all-important W-words. We learned in English class back in the day, the five W’s and one H word of journalism. These are the questions we were expected to ask and answer to gain information to supply the substance of any journalistic piece.
Who, what, when, where, why and how? So, into adulthood, we carry on the question-asking habit, only if the most prevalent questions remaining in our arsenal are why and what for?
“What for,” must have been another traditional kid-interrogative sentence because adults created a punishment for asking it too much. It went like this “I’m gonna give you what for if you keep that up!”
If you were punished for no reason, you might reasonably ask, “for what am I being punished?” What for? In response, the punisher might say, “I’ll give you ‘what for’” as the nebulous reason. Your inquiry is thusly stopped.
If you are a person with a naturally “wondering” personality, you might get “what for” for asking “why” too much. This reminds me of a quote I recently came across and jotted down because of my wondering ways. “For your peace of mind do not try to understand everything.”
Fill in the blank and make a note of how many times this week, you’ve said either to yourself or someone else, “I don’t understand why…”. Maybe the answer to why is the customary tired parent’s answer to the why-question, “just because.”
That answer has evolved into the highly philosophical version of “just because,” “it is what it is.” Back in the day we said, “everything is everything,” as a bit of a jab at the answers posited by the Mother Earth folks among us.
Don’t get me wrong, questions are a vital form of effective communication. Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat, in fact frequently curiosity gleans dinner for the cat if not a smidgen of fun.
The way we analyze situations, make informed decisions, understand and process incoming data, and discover answers behind doors number one through a zillion, is by asking questions if only in our minds.
My husband is a question-asking conversationalist, the best in the business. When I’m happy to move right along, my husband is back in aisle seven asking someone another open-ended question, and he sincerely cares to know the answer.
Interrogative is another word for question. Just like wonder is a form of ethereal questioning and the root word of wonderful, interrogations are questioning sessions, received often with resistance.
To our daughter, dad’s questions often feel like interrogation. And she resists.
Interrogation by detectives is a way of getting vital answers to solve crimes. This kind of questioning, being drilled for information, sometimes being asked the same question in different forms, repeatedly, is potentially off-putting.
But questions are the information-gathering substance of life. Don’t you want to know more than what is spoon-fed to you by your daily walkabout?
Speaking of substance, or the lack thereof, from the looks of social media or general media, the questions people want answered are ludicrous and have nothing to do with life improvement. In fact, this information used to be considered just nosiness and was inquired only by busy bodies.
I’m talking about dumb stuff like, what celebrity is getting divorced, who’s sleeping with their nanny, did she/he have facial surgery, are those breasts real or glued-on, who just bought another multi-million-dollar house, etc. The slogan, “inquiring minds want to know,” was once only associated with worthless, rag journalism.
Today, however, there are substantive questions like, is there a new drug in the works to affect higher quality of life for Alzheimer’s patients and has the cancer gene been isolated. But they get buried below what is this or that celebrity’s favorite color. Oh, my goodness.
We are free to ask dumb questions. I guess if I’m fair, I should agree with the teachers who say, “there is no dumb question,” but really, “like…what color nail polish does Kylie Jenner wear?”
My question would be, “why?”