QUESTIONS...In order to understand the world man has always
asked questions. In one of Rudyard Kipling'stories "there was one
Elephant -a new Elephant - and Elephant's Child - who was full of
"satiable curtiosity - and that means he asked ever so many questions."
In Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy" trilogy a giant computer called Deep Thought is set to work, to
discover the meaning of "life the universe and everything". After
millions of years he comes up with the answer "42". Seems no one
really knew what the question was, but at least now they have an answer!
Questions and quests for answers form the basis of mankind's
acquisition of knowledge about this world.From the small child asking what
holds the sun up, to the scientist asking her husband what's for dinner.
Some questions are small and need an immediate answer, some are astronomically
complicated and will take many, many years to answer.
The Elephant's Child got into a lot of trouble for asking
too many questions. His aunts, uncles, cousins, mother and father, all spanked
him very hard indeed. But he just persisted. How many whistle blowers, in
consideration of the welfare of others, have put themselves on the line and
asked dangerous questions? How many scientists have challenged accepted beliefs
and questioned the status quo. Galileo, Darwin, and so many others dared to
question and look at the enormous contributions they made to man's knowledge of
the world.
Seeking answers to questions has led mankind to where he is
today. And if you aren't happy with the state of things, climate
change,war, famine and catastrophe, keep questioning. That is the way to
solutions.
This is an illustration from the original version of Rudyard Kipling's "Elephant's Child" from his collection of stories entitled "Just So" stories. They were published in 1902 and were tales to explain how things came to be, in this instance, how the elephant got his trunk. And all the Elephant's Child's questioning got him something pretty darn useful, don't you think.
1 comment:
Cool post. I chose questions as my post today but yours is way better!
Post a Comment