Today on the list of things that crowd my brain instead of null pointer references and expression trees is the validity of a question you can ask.
Rilke said that you should live the questions, and eventually live your way into the answer.
But what if one day you realize* that you weren't asking the right questions all along?
(*By "realize" here I can only mean decide. So no, I don't come to some big realization that the answers and goals I have been so far living towards are somehow wrong. I simply decide to change my mind. After all, a girl can change her mind even more often than she changes her shoes, whose supply is not infinite, and you will eventually have to come across a pair you have already worn. No, changing your mind is free, especially if it is that time of the month, or if that time of the month is looming sometime in the vague future, or it if you are stressed, or if it is Tuesday - you catch my drift.)
So you decide one day that the questions you have been trying to answer weren't the right questions to ask after all. Is there a way to go back, retroactively, and live your way into an answer you were never aiming for?
I still believe that when you ask a question, at some point you will come to realize that you have had the answer all along. But I think that comes from struggling with that question, being open to cues in your environment that would help you answer that question, and structuring your choices based on who you were at the time. Then, if, putting it bluntly, you decide that you have made a mistake, by asking one "what if" question and attempting to live your way into that answer, when really, you should have been asking, "what if NOT," there is NO way to go back and relive that alternate path!
Because you can really only project "what if" questions into the future, and after you live it, realize that it is the only way it could have been. That is the only way to handle "what if'ing" without being extremely, unnecessarily cruel to yourself. OF COURSE it couldn't have been different, if it is the way it is! If things were different, nothing would be the way that it is now, so NOTHING could have been different.
Therefore, if you think that you asked an incorrect question in the past, all you can really do is decide which question you want to project into the future.
Rilke said that you should live the questions, and eventually live your way into the answer.
But what if one day you realize* that you weren't asking the right questions all along?
(*By "realize" here I can only mean decide. So no, I don't come to some big realization that the answers and goals I have been so far living towards are somehow wrong. I simply decide to change my mind. After all, a girl can change her mind even more often than she changes her shoes, whose supply is not infinite, and you will eventually have to come across a pair you have already worn. No, changing your mind is free, especially if it is that time of the month, or if that time of the month is looming sometime in the vague future, or it if you are stressed, or if it is Tuesday - you catch my drift.)
So you decide one day that the questions you have been trying to answer weren't the right questions to ask after all. Is there a way to go back, retroactively, and live your way into an answer you were never aiming for?
I still believe that when you ask a question, at some point you will come to realize that you have had the answer all along. But I think that comes from struggling with that question, being open to cues in your environment that would help you answer that question, and structuring your choices based on who you were at the time. Then, if, putting it bluntly, you decide that you have made a mistake, by asking one "what if" question and attempting to live your way into that answer, when really, you should have been asking, "what if NOT," there is NO way to go back and relive that alternate path!
Because you can really only project "what if" questions into the future, and after you live it, realize that it is the only way it could have been. That is the only way to handle "what if'ing" without being extremely, unnecessarily cruel to yourself. OF COURSE it couldn't have been different, if it is the way it is! If things were different, nothing would be the way that it is now, so NOTHING could have been different.
Therefore, if you think that you asked an incorrect question in the past, all you can really do is decide which question you want to project into the future.
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