With the way life is now, I tend to think about completely different topics, centred around our twin girls usually. As the title of the post suggests, the question we all love and potentially loathe at the same time is "Why?".
We all know how to ask "Why?", i.e. Why do we go to work everyday? Why did this or that happen today? Why are the trains late?
What got me thinking about this was wanting to encourage our girls to ask why, as they get older, to feed their curiosity of why something happens, or why people do things in certain ways, etc...
This got me thinking, that when we were kids and growing up, we were always encouraged to ask why, to be curious and not be afraid to ask questions. Why the change? As we get older we tend to be discouraged a lot of the time to ask questions, particularly "why?". It's almost as if it becomes more annoying to answer questions, and we show our frustration by batting away the question. Slowly those that regularly ask "why" feel like they have to think "50" times before they ask or they feel like they just can't ask at all.
It's a shame really, isn't it? To go from being encouraged to be curious, to effectively be told to just get on with it, becomes quite a command and control type of culture. I'm not saying everyone has been discouraged, but from what I've seen, it's about just getting things done. Ironically, I want to ask "why?", why do we discourage something we were taught to do at a young age? Why do we get annoyed with people when they ask questions? Why do we just tell people to get on with it rather than answering their question?
My thoughts on this are that we live in an age where everything is needed asap, or urgently or now or even yesterday. We are all so consumed in wanting things in an instant, which I guess is a sign of the times we live in, particularly here in the UK. I can't really say for those living in other countries, but there may be an easier approach to life, a more relaxed approach if you like. I guess we are in the Digital age where virtually anything and everything is available in an instant and if not in an instant then in a specific space of time.
With the way life is these days, I really admire those people that can take a step back and see the bigger picture, not necessarily demand things immediately but encourage others to be curious and to ask questions. That is what makes life interesting, being curious, asking questions, finding out the answers and potentially doing something with those answers, even if that is just becoming a well rounded knowledgeable human being.
So, what do you think? Do you discourage people from asking why? Do you think we live in a society these days where we want everything in an instant?
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