“What shall I wear today?” or “What shall I choose for lunch today?” But, beyond that level, nothing.   If that is your view of life, and you are satisfied, then you might prefer to stop reading, before you get a headache, or a tummy ache, or whatever. This writing is for those of us who feel a need to look deeper into life. We need something beyond just existing day after day until that final day comes.

            And then there is another extreme. I like questions to motivate thinking, but then I look for answers and expect to find some.   There are some who continually ask questions with no real interest in answers to those questions, and ignore answers when they are given. It becomes a child’s game. But asking good questions is not a child’s game. Note that I said “good questions”. You may ask. What is a good question? We will discuss that later.

            I am reminded of a humorous story, a story about a young man with questions about life. It seems there was a young man, named Edsel, who pondered the great questions in his search for truth. He had more questions than answers, like most of us. Then he heard of a guru, a source of answers, living on a mountain in India. Maybe he could find some answers there? So he saved money, starved to spend less money, wore the same clothes for 7 years, did everything he could to save up enough money and prepare for the long difficult trip to India. Edsel resided in a small town in Indiana. 

            One day he had saved enough money and decided he was ready to go to the far away land. He bought his tickets and packed his bags. After getting to Bombay, he had to catch a bus to travel to a small village near the mountain. Next he hired a guide to lead and walk with him through rugged territory to get to the wise man. The great day finally came.   He walked up to the small hut, the home of the guru.  An old woman let him in to visit the guru in his small bare room. 

            Edsel said, “O Holy one, I am a seeker of truth and would like to ask only one question, one question that is bothering me.”

 “O Holy one, what is life? What is life all about?” 

“My beloved, seeker of truth, the answer is simple: Life is a bowl of cherries.” 

Edsel was puzzled. “Life is a bowl of cherries? That is your answer?” 

Now Edsel was angry. “I saved, and scrimped and suffered for years, and you sit there and tell me just, ‘Life is a bowl of cherries’. I am disappointed and disgusted.” 

“So, young man you don’t like my answer?” 

“Yes indeed, I am disappointed in you, O Holy One.”  

 

            Sounds like the old remark you have often heard. “Ask me a silly question, get a silly answer”. And of course we often ask great questions that seem to have no answer.

 “How did the world begin?” Or, “How did life begin on earth?” “What is life?”

These are not silly questions. In our literature and folklore we have religious answers and attempted scientific answers to such deep questions. None qualifies as “the answer”. These are interesting questions, good food for thought, delightful to ponder, but fortunately no one needs to know “the answer” to any of these questions.

            What do you really need to know about life, or anything? I certainly did not believe at age five I already knew everything I needed to know. My parents agreed. They did not claim to know everything and they had a desire to know more. They were learners. So, in 1936, at the age of six I entered grade one, with no kindergarten. By that time I could already read some. I knew a little about numbers. I learned the name of my first school teacher, but I can’t write that down now, because long ago I forgot it. Much learning is temporary that way. I began to learn about other people, especially girls that were not a sister; I had four of those. Even at age six I knew a sister is definitely not the same as a girl friend.

            That first girl friend is a learning experience. We were just two six-year-olds who became friends. I don’t remember her name and wouldn’t recognize her today if I saw her again. Call her Ellen. All I remember these many years later is, she liked me and I liked her when we were six. I was happy to see Ellen each day in school, and we talked when we had opportunity. Maybe that’s all that matters. The love affair was over when first grade was over, because my family and I moved to another home and another school. I don’t know where Ellen went afterwards. We said goodbye and went on our respective ways. I don’t remember thinking much about Ellen after we separated. So much, for another immature relationship. To use an over used phrase, “We passed like ships in the dark”, or maybe it was a just a thick fog. Many adult relationships are like that, too. My experience was a preview of life to come.

            After over 70 years of observation, I assure any man reading these words, man to man, we never learn all we need to know about girls and women. Finally, we find the right girl and get married. Our education has barely begun. Just when we think we have women all figured out, we discover we have to start all over again. We are told, “No, no, your answers are incorrect.” I didn’t even know what the question was. 

            After becoming an adult I taught in universities for many years. An oft recurring, familiar student question is “Do we need to know this for the next exam?” Is that the way to approach life? Try to learn just what you need to know to get by? That is a dangerous strategy. There are many things I don’t know, but one thing I do know is, that no one knows exactly what one will need to know in life. During the past 60 years I’ve seen many examples of things I thought I didn’t know and later wished I did know. The only safe strategy I know, is to try to learn on every opportunity, every thing your brain can handle. And the need to learn, no matter how old one is, never ends. Until death, ye shall learn.

            So, what does anyone need to know? We might begin by considering whether that question has a sensible answer. It is certainly possible to form questions with no sensible answer. Many questions about life seem to be like that.   Suppose a lady suddenly becomes a widow, with no warning. The most important person in her life, her partner for thirty years, is a victim of a heart attack, or an automobile accident. It is not unusual to have this hypothetical lady come to her pastor and ask, “Why did this happen to me? I am alone now. My children have lost a father. How can God do that to me?” The only honest answer is, “I don’t know. No one can answer your question.” Or, “Only God knows. Someday we will understand.” This troubled lady is looking for comfort and hope. She has an emotional need. She is not looking for a factual, scientific answer. Her question is not a question to be answered like an exam question in public school. A wise pastor would not attempt to offer a neat, simple answer. To this lady such an answer would be empty, meaningless words. The life she knew is gone. She needs something beyond mere words, a bridge to a new meaningful life.

            Suppose you ask me, “What do I need to know to prepare for the future?” You are looking forward to the remainder of your life and want to make a life plan. If you want me to be specific, I am as helpless as the pastor confronted by the widow’s question. However, in more general terms I can say a few things. Assuming you are an adult, you need to know at least the fundamentals of a public school education, but any more extended, detailed list of “what to know” will always be incomplete. Do you need to go to college? Maybe, but not nrcessarily. If you plan to teach physics, or any science, in a university then the answer is yes. If you plan to be a carpenter or a house painter, and those are honorable occupations, the answer is no. A college education has some benefit for anyone but I wouldn’t insist on college for everyone. Most “need to know” long term lists would be incomplete and vary from person to person.

            We each have short lists, based on the immediate direction and circumstances of our life. If you have just joined a company, taking a new job, there will be some things you will need to know. I have been faced with such lists at many times over my life time. I remember well my first day as a new Navy Electronics Technician on an aircraft carrier headed for Japan and the Korean War, in 1953. That huge ship had an incredible amount of electronics equipment: radars, sonar, radio receivers and transmitters, and more. I joined a small group of technicians responsible for repair and maintenance of all of that equipment. 

            I had completed my training at the US Navy Electronics School, but the real learning was just beginning. In a few days I could have made a list of things of things I expected I would soon need to know. But that first list would have been incomplete. All new jobs are like that, as many know. Life as a whole is like that, too.   Soon after you make a list of, “this is what I need to know”, you will find much left out.

            My plan after boarding ship was to continue learning; picking up from where my schooling left off. A year later I was transferred to a shore base, so the learning process began again. That has been a repeating, never-ending story, in each successive stage in my life: return to civilian life, graduate school, first teaching appointment, marriage. The learning goes on. That is the way of life in so many ways. No one is ever prepared to become a new father. Does any new father know all they need to know, to raise a child?  We learn by experience, not reading a book, not even Dr. Spock’s masterpiece.

            I always welcomed the opportunity to learn, and expected to move on to bigger and better things. I fear for those who refuse, or at least strongly resist, despite the need to learn. For some, this resistance begins early in school; all learning seems to be a chore. At least that is the case for so many public school students. Most are not motivated to learn. Reasons vary, but there are many reasons and that is a problem for educators. Some theorize about it, write books on the subject, and teach others how to teach, and the problem goes on in the class rooms of public schools daily. I have known individuals who refused to take advantage of opportunities to learn what they need to know to keep a job. You learn and grow, or you die; a rule of life. It may be a slow death but the failure to learn is a failure to live to it’s full.

            For some, life is a riddle. But there is no simple answer to the riddle of life, as so many view life. I do not think of life as a riddle, some interesting, nonsensical rhyme, with a tricky solution. There are some real mysteries that seem like riddles. In living our lives we encounter many such mysteries. There are many questions, some with answers, some without. But, the search for answers to good questions, properly expressed, sometimes finding real answers, can be an enjoyable activity in life.  

            The life of a man such as Einstein, or Isaac Newton, or any great thinker, is an example for all of us of a life spent looking for answers to big questions. Of course only a few of us will have the success in finding answers as these men did. We can, however, learn and find some answers by study of the work of others. That is one of the functions of a good education. But even the best of educations will not provide answers to all of your questions. As you learn answers, more questions are created. Hopefully, from time to time you will find some answers to your own personal questions about life.

            You may be frustrated by your inability to find answers you seek for your questions. But all of life is about learning and the role in life for each of us. Persevere. Hang on. Everyone with a healthy brain should have a need to know, a desire to learn and feel real satisfaction from learning and gaining new knowledge. We were built that way, whether you credit that to evolution or design of God. This, I believe, is a fact about human beings; everyone of us. Seconds after emerging from the womb, learning must begin for the new human being, or the child will die. Some learning begins in the womb of the mother as the child within is prepared for entry into the outside world. The new born child enters the world able to learn and grow, with a desire and need to do so.

            There is great satisfaction in learning deep things about astronomy, physics and mathematics; that has been a way of life for me. But there is great satisfaction in learning from the Shakespeares, authors of poetry and literature, experiencing the mere joy that comes from being able to appreciate the beauty of great writing. But even here education and learning plays a part. The person who takes time to learn about art or music will feel and see aspects hidden to the uninformed listener or viewers.

            So, if you want to think of life as a riddle, I offer an answer, or solution, without knowing exactly how you may choose to write down the words of the riddle of your life. I believe the answer is:

             “to learn and to know, however you can, whenever the opportunity arises”. 

Any riddle is a question in disguised form. There are many views and opinions offered as an answer to the question “What is life?” One think I do know. What ever it is it is much more than “a bowl of cherries”.

 

Copyright 2012  Benjamin F. Plybon