Questions

I have a lot of questions in life. Most people do. I ask, what car should I drive? Well, the one I own now seems to be the best choice. A lot of questions have fairly obvious answers. For example, why do I have to submit myself to gravity? Basically, I have no choice. Why do I have to work? To support myself and not starve.

Others are not so easy. Why are yawns contagious? Why do you put the peanut butter on before the jelly? Why do I want things that I know will hurt me, like a pet hippo? Why do some people see me, and others don’t know I exist? Better yet, why do I care?

I ask myself these questions and more all the time, and usually don’t arrive at any useful conclusions. I am tempted to stop questioning things and just go with it, because it’s going to be that way anyway. Then I realize that when I stop asking questions, I stop learning. I see people who have given up and go day to day, practically dead because they no longer care. I don’t want to be like that.

So, I don’t have all the answers. But really, no one does. We all work towards the goal of learning more, and living with the answers we have the best we can.

Communication

Many people either advocate the modern mode of communication via text message or instant message, or condemn it altogether.  Those opposed to it talk about how it dehumanizes everything and gets us used to impersonal relationships. Those who promote this form of communication talk about how it’s easy, fast and allows them to multitask.

Personally, I’m in the middle. It’s so convenient to send someone a text to find how where they are or when something is. However, there have been times when I’ve been frustrated by the lack of human contact in communication. It loses a certain quality I believe is necessary for good communication. One statistic says that communication is only 7% verbal. This means that the words we write only convey 7% percent of our true meaning to the receiver. This makes texting and I.M.ing a very poor method for an in depth conversation.

Yet, there are times when there is a hard or awkward conversation that needs to be had, and I find myself glad that I’m not having it in person, or wishing for the protection of the computer screen between us.

The bottom line—technology is good in its place, as it has always been.