Big, Important Questions

As I grow, I notice that I’m shifting away from looking for answers. Answers are useful, but as I seem to remember hearing somewhere, a good question is better than a good answer.

What I take from that: An answer is finite — it may be the answer you need, but it also closes off possibilities, which consequently doesn’t stretch our minds.

A good question, on the other hand, opens up possibilities. A good question stretches your mind, makes you think.

So with that in mind, I found a series of great questions at the blog of a new friend, Ingrid Henkel. The post “Poverty Consciousness” challenges our concepts of what we need and why we need it:

Who are we when we are stripped not just of our clothes but of our titles, our possessions, our wealth?  What are we when we are stripped of our rhetoric, our religion, our nationality, our creed and our ethnicity?

We should be asking ourselves WHY, not WHAT.  Why do I watch HGTV?  Why do I feel compelled to buy the most expensive goods?  Why do I watch the stock market, and how do I feel when I am having a conversation about it with another person?

Why do I tell the stories that I tell and to whom do I choose to tell them?

The trick to asking yourself the big questions is not feeling obliged to come up with an answer. The object isn’t to come up with solutions but to explore possibilities. For more on that, you’ll have to peek Ingrid’s post for yourself.

Be blessed!