Questions and Answers

Yesterday as I was driving in my truck at work, I realised something.  It was something very profound and relevant to life.  As I pondered this stunning revelation I thought of writing it down, but decided not to. Of course, by the end of the day I had forgotten it.  If that were the end of the story, this would be the end of this blog entry, and be one of the most pointless entries I have ever made.  However, today I remembered it, and decided to write it down on my blog.

My thought was this: We don't find an answer, we accept an answer.

Which doesn't seem so profound now I just write it down like that.  However, let me take a few words to explain what I mean.  Everybody has questions.  Everyone is looking for answers to their questions.  While there are many answers to each question, we end up settling on one particular answer to accept as our own.

OK, so simple example, what is one plus one?  This is a simple question.  Let me give you a few options to answer it with.

1. 1+1=2
2. 1+1=11
3. 1+1=1
4. 1+1=4

So, which of the three did you accept?  I expect you got the first, but all are valid answers, all have an element of truth.  Lets justify each of the answers

1. It's what teachers tell us in school
2. It's what pupils joke about in school
3. Scriptural marriage: Mark 10:9 They two shall be one flesh
4. My Marriage, Man plus woman equals Man, Woman and 2 kids.

The answer that you accept depends on how you are approaching the question.  While all the answers are applicable in their own way, for the most part the last three are useless for day to day purposes.  So generally we accept the first answer that one and one is two.

There are many other more complex questions that appear in our lives.  How to deal with relationship, how to make the best choice between bad options.  We should be able to find many answers, but the important thing is accepting the right answer.  Or at least accepting the best answer for our situation.

Good Excuses

I hated homework.  I rarely did it, which is why I am in a job cleaning carpet, rather than designing space stations for NASA.  Or discovering the cure for cancer.  Or writing my nobel prize acceptance speech - you get the idea.  The part about homework I hated most was the excuses I had to offer.  I usually never got further than "I forget it".  Unlike the comic strip characters, I never had a dog trained to eat homework.

This line of thought was prompted by an interesting occurrence at the carpet cleaning company at which I currently work.  Names have been changed to protect the guilty.  Photos have been scribbled out to safeguard the identity of parties concerned.  But how is this for a really good excuse for making someone fill in a form again?