Looking for Answers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

It has been my experience of life so far (I was born on Dec 21 1945) that many people ask the wrong questions of themselves and others. Could that be why, more often than not, they come up with the wrong answers?

Questions are too often tailored to preconceived ideas, including stereotypes. I refer in particular to those bigots who persist in condemning gay people for their sexuality and/or others for the colour of their skin and/or religion (or non-religion). Whatever happened to live and let live?

Sadly, stereotypes of all kinds become fixed in some people’s minds; especially where the mind is so small there is little room for manoeuvre. If only more people were to consider opening up their minds and hearts to accommodate new ideas, confront the possibility that their approach to morality and various socio-cultural-religious issues is not without its flaws. 

World religions preach love and peace, but this requires an open heart and mind. Sadly, it has been my experience through life that relatively few religious  people practice what their religion preaches. Oh, they would deny it and are quick to seek media attention whenever a personal, local or national tragedy strikes, especially any form of hate crime that makes headlines, but many if not most most are simply paying lip service to what is expected of them; increasingly less so with young people, it is good to see.

Could it be that asking more appropriate and relevant questions might well encourage all of us to enter into (even if continuing to disagree with or even disapprove of) more appropriate and relevant points of view...sufficiently, at least, to leave us feeling less inclined to impose our own?

Oh, but I wish...!

As I have said before (and probably will again) our differences don’t make us different, only human.

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” - Voltaire

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS 

‘Who am I?’’I asked a river

but it just kept rushing on by without

making any reply;

‘Who am I?’ I asked a songbird,

but it just took off into the sky without

making any reply;

‘Who am I?’ I asked a sycamore

where angels fell from the sky without

making any reply

‘What are you?’ asked a river

but I’d just keep rushing on by without

making any reply;

‘What are you?’ asked a songbird,

but I’d just scoff pie in the sky without

making any reply;

‘What are you?’ asked a sycamore

where angel wings were in a flap about

any right of reply

River, bird, tree, human being,

leading questions in the mind’s eye, only

guessing at replies;

questions of identity the world seeks

to thread through a needle’s eye without

caring how or why;

If Discovery the Mother of Creation,

may it teach us to ask the right questions,

respect any reply

Copyright R. N. Taber 2011