Questions (earnest and open questions, not rhetorical questions) open up space for a kind of reflection and consideration that allows one to move forward (do you think that's true? It might not be; or, it might just depend.)
Here are some "revolutionary questions" I've been pondering lately, questions that I think have the potential to create significant positive change. I've organized them into different "horizons" or spheres of activity (hope the metaphor makes sense; this organizational scheme may be more a reflection of my own OCD, rather than any actual ontological features of human beings.)
Economic Horizon
- Where does my food come from? Where do I want it to come from?
- Where does my water come from? Where do I want it to come from?
- What do I use money for? How can I use money more efficiently? Do I want to use it more efficiently?
- If I stopped using money at all, what necessity would be most difficult to acquire?
- How can I give gifts more often? What kind of gifts do I want to give? What kind of gifts do I want to receive?
- How simple do I want my life to be? How complex?
- Besides nutritious food, clean water, shelter, and clothing, what else do I need?
- If I had to give away three things right now, what would I give away?
- What is my life's work? Have I begun it yet?
- To whom does my labor belong? To whom do I want it to belong?
- What do I spend the most time doing? What do I want to spend more time doing? What do I wish I didn't do at all?
- Do I have a safety net? Can I take risks? Do I want to take risks?
Social Horizon
- Who are my friends? Who are my enemies?
- How many friends and enemies do I have? How many do I want to have?
- Who partners with me on my life's work? Who is opposing me?
- How can I compete more? Do I want to be more competitive?
- How can I become more collaborative? Who do I wish would collaborate with me?
- What do I offer my friends? What do they offer me?
- What holds me back from loving others more? How can I turn my weaknesses into strengths?
- What kind of people do I like most? Who am I afraid of?
Somatic Horizon
- Are my body and I on the same team, or do we oppose one another?
- What nutrients do I need more of? What do I need less of?
- What kind of body do I want to have? What is within my range of control for shaping it?
- What are my skills? What skills do I want to have? What skills do I most appreciate when others have them?
- How are my resilience, flexibility, endurance, and strength? What do I want them to be?
- Do I feel balanced and orderly? What kind, and what amounts, of stress do I want to have?
- When do I feel strongest? Why?
- When do I feel weakest? Why?
- What kind of food makes me feel happy, clean, and healthy?
Spiritual Horizon
- Am I intentional about what I do? Do I want to be more intentional or less intentional?
- What motivations drive my actions? What motivations do I want to drive my actions?
- How patient, focused, poised, calm, grateful, and brave am I?
- Am I a curious person? What do I think of curiosity?
- How frequently do I feel sensations of awe? Can I feel awe more often? Should I?
- Do I take responsibility for my experience of life? Do I feel like my life is controlled by outside forces?
- Am I open to new ideas? How open? Do I seek them out? How do I express my openness?
- Do people look to me for guidance? Do I want them to? Do people feel reassured around me?
- Am I a creative person? Do I want to be? If so, what do I want to create?
Cosmic Horizon
- What animal do I love the most? What animal do I fear the most? What animal is most puzzling to me?
- What do plants and animals think about me? What do I want them to think?
- If I could live anywhere on earth, where would it be? If not here, then why am I not there?
- What's my opinion on the planet, its present, its future, and its past?
- How often do I look at the sky, in any given day? How often do I want to?
- Can I see the stars? Does this matter? If so, why? If not, why?
- Do I think there is a Creator? If so, how does this affect the way I live from hour to hour? If not, how does this affect the way I live from hour to hour?
- Do I think time is linear or cyclical (or both)? What are my feelings about time?
- What do I think of outer space? Does it have any meaning for my life?
- Is the universe chaotic or ordered, static or evolving, meaningless or meaningful, obvious or mysterious?
Horizon of Discovery
- What questions should we be asking that no one has asked yet?
Love,
graham
Posts
...so, the question is...have you answered any of them?
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is a dumb question, but have you read Emerson's Nature essay? Here's a great snippet that correlates with your post:
He says, "Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy."
Good questions. Got me thinking! Keep on, keeping on.
Hey Ruth!
ReplyDeleteHmm, I've answered a few ... maybe 2% :) I know where I want my food and water to come from, for example.
What about you? Have you answered any of these questions, or questions like these, in a way that has surprised you?
Nice reference of Emerson's Nature essay - I read it awhile ago, but I wouldn't remember anything from it -- I like that quote a lot. Reminds me of something CS Lewis said -- which also reminds me of something the Epicurean philosophers believed -- which is that everything we truly need is attainable, and everything that is truly unattainable, we don't need; hence, the universe is perfectly ordered. That being said ... I disagree with Emerson (as I understand him here), in that I don't think (all of) our curiosity can ever be satisfied, nor do I think all our questions are answerable. I think most of them aren't -- our good questions, anyway. Or, they're answerable, only a very provisional, very-unconvincing-to-everyone way ... what do you think?
Hello Graham!
ReplyDeleteI have started to answer a few, and especially been thinking lately about where I spend my money, and where I want to spend my money. I also think about that in terms of time. How do I spend my time? For whom do I toil? Yes...I have been thinking about your questions and hope that maybe some will inspire change.
I don't consider myself a philosopher and often have trouble thinking about things abstractly, but I do ask questions in my writings all the time. It seems, more often than not, I am asking a question of the reader and maybe I don't know the answer or maybe am not ready to answer the question, but I don't think that means the answer (or resolution of some sort, because 'answer' for me connotates one simplistic statement) doesn't exist. Does that make sense?
You know what? I was actually remembering part of Economy by Thoreau. He writes a section about our needs: “The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success.” That might begin to answer one of your economic questions. Maybe you're familiar with this essay as well, but I think it's worthwhile to read often.
I just love those transcendentalists…