They come and they go, the are born, they grow, they get old, they die, some say they are reborn, to live again, to age again and to die again. This begs the most obvious and age old question: “why are we here?”
Tag: question
It is the biggest question of all! Are we here only for this lifetime? Do we go on afterwards? Why can’t we remember where we came from? Does it make any sense for it to end here? What kind of a bad investment would that be?
The questions that haunt us all and the answers that we think we are so sure of, but are we? No one has been there and back yet, have they?
Have you every had a conversation with a 7-year-old about the meaning of life? Well I am finding out having one of these humans with me that theological issues seem to be on top of their list when it comes to discussions and every little thing seems to lead them to this territory. It goes something like this: Why are we on this planet? Why do people die? Will I live again? Will you be my parents again? Will I be a girl? Can you show me a picture of God? Are you sure God is a man? How many numbers can you keep counting before you run out of numbers? If the earth is spinning, whey aren’t we feeling it?
… you get the picture. And she can do that for an hour straight and then pick up where she left off the next day. I think this is the most humbling part of parenthood, a time of honesty, of admitting ignorance of certain deep matters, of encouraging further questioning, unless you are like my grandmother who used tell me each time I asked her as a child about beyond the beyond that one more question from me and I am sure to be struck by lightning! I still remember waiting for dry days before trying to ask her again 🙂
We are born, we live, we journey through life from event to event, we witness other travelers arriving, others leaving, we wonder where they came from, where are they going to, we search history books, we seek religion, we question science, we hope to hear any truth, any certainty from a wise sage, we pray to what we consider to be a higher force, we test our belief, we question reality, and we never really get THE answer we are looking for. All we get are more questions and a realization that our journey is only but a part of a much bigger one packed full of mystery and the answers lie within us to discover, maybe not here and not now, but somewhere sometime…
photo taken: man walking in an alley of the old water city Zhouzhuang, China
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Day Thirty Five, February 26, 2011
Lately, Lea, my daughter, seems to be stuck inside her contemplations of “what is beyond the beyond”. She asks, wonders, contemplates, reads, thinks, questions and is in awe of the biggest question that baffles us all.
Today, our family day, we decided to make a little solar system. It was a fantastic process for us to see and visualize the world we live in, zoom out , imagine, ponder and come to the conclusion that we are living in a tiny spec of the huge awesome universe. It expands the mind and it is so wonderful to share it with a curious bright six year old!