I’ve made reference in a few different blog posts (here recently and here from the Association Renewal blog) to my concern about our society’s obsession with answers. Patti Digh recently referred me to this blog post about it as well, where a Canadian provided an interesting perspective on the topic:

"The great challenge facing America" he said, "particularly evident in this election season, is that you take positions too quickly. It’s almost impossible for you to have substantive debate about any issue because you rush to defend your positions before you’ve had the opportunity to consider the worth of the opposing point of view. In fact, listening to the opposition is treated as a sign of weakness, immediately branded as ‘wishy-washy.’"

We want answers, and we want them quickly. We’ve always been rewarded for getting answers quickly. The teacher asks a question, and the hands shoot up instantly. There is logic to providing answers quickly. It’s more efficient. It keeps us moving.

But just because it’s logical, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. I’ve been thinking a lot about how much our logic and our frameworks hurt us when they are oversimplified. This is an example. Logic tells us we should strive for quick answers all the time, but as I take a step back, I wonder if it is robbing us of our collective ability to engage in a level of discourse we will need to make it out of our current messes.

Sometimes NOT having the answer is just what we need. We need to talk more. We need to experiment more. We need to listen more. We need to learn how to move forward and keep acting even though we don’t have the answer. This is not something we have been trained to do, and it’s not something that we value.

A good friend sent me a quote from Rilke that hits it for me:

"I beg you…to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing it, live your way into the answer…"