The art of asking questions
12th September 2005
Questions are very helpful tools. They help us to discover, to investigate, to clarify, to illumine and eventually, hopefully, to find the right answers. Sometimes, though, questions could also lead us down the wrong path. We may be asking the wrong questions, or we may be asking the right questions at the wrong time. It is important to be able to find the right answers, but often the right answers do not come up at the first or second question. Sometimes we need to dig deeper.
I raised several questions recently about people’s reactions to the Katrina tragedy, the ensuing tragic comedy (and here’s a great illustrative post about what I mean) and the sometimes destructive debates that go on between folks who not only do not see eye-to-eye with one another, but take opposite sides just because they don’t like each other’s politics or dogma. (No need to link to those, as there are far too many examples going around the ’sphere).
People are still asking questions. I wonder though why people turn to questions like these only when calamities of such magnitude occur. Why do people who suffer suddenly ask “Why me?” And why do bystanders ask, “Is it because of their fault/sin that such a bad thing has befallen them?”
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