pop the question

have you ever asked a question that you already knew the answer to? have you ever asked a question but didn't want the answer? have you ever not asked the question begging to be asked? have you ever asked the wrong question? have you ever asked a question and not gotten an answer? have you ever asked the question begging not to be asked?
 
do you love me? are you moving? i should ask how she's doing, but i can't. oh, are you expecting? are you coming? have you put on weight?


questions are curious things. as a part of speech, it is a linguistic expression that can be either interrogative or an imperative statement. whether framed as a question or a command, both of these require an answer. for instance, what did you do yesterday? or, tell me what you did yesterday.


then there's the rhetorical question, that gets asked in an effort to persuade--or possibly dissuade--where an answer is not only not expected, it's often not wanted, because it's meant to make you think...not speak.


there's another form of questioning that doesn't require a verbal answer, and it's those questions that only require an action. if i ask you what you're doing tomorrow, you can answer by shrugging your shoulders to suggest that you don't know. or if i ask you if you're coming tomorrow, you can indicate your answer by nodding or shaking your head.


by extension, there are times when you ask a question and all you get in response is a hmmph, or an ugh, or a sigh, or some other unintelligible noise, or a yawn, or an mmm hmm...not actions like i just highlighted, but neither are they answers requiring language in the sense of words.


this little foray is the result of hearing something yesterday, which propelled my mind in the direction that just solicited the foregoing statements. "language was invented to ask questions." i thought this was brilliant so i began writing this blog entry. then at exactly this juncture in my writing, i googled the quote to find out who said it. american social writer and philosopher eric hoffer did, and he continues: "answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. humanness came of age when man asked the first question. social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions."


i'm not going to unpack what he said anymore than i already unkowingly did in my first few paragraphs, because it's pretty self-evident, and i'm not especially interested in the latter part anyway--except to elaborate by saying that i agree with my pastor when he says it's ok to ask questions. we're only human. we don't have all the answers. we need to ask questions. i think asking questions means your head's in the game or that you at least have some interest in what's being played out. but i should qualify my statement and say that if you ask questions just to be confrontational, or antagonistic, or to play devil's advocate with no impulse to be useful or instructional, then keep quiet with your questions. please, please, please stir your pot somewhere else :-) 


now if you're looking for something overtly biblical in this blog entry, here it is. think of one of the greatest questions in the bible from one who posed many. job asked, "if a man dies, will he live again?" and, if the bible says to always be prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope i have, then it's safe to infer a question has been asked. so, my point is that asking questions is healthy. it shows you're alive and not stagnant...oh, and ps: the answer to job's question is yes :-) message me at t-lstewart@hotmail.com if you wanna know more about that! oh, and double ps: the hope i have is because i get abundant life now and eternal life later...and the whole dying and living again, and hope of eternal life is all connected. so, again, message me if you wanna know more :-)

but, it's the first 2 statements that got this ball rolling. "language was invented to ask questions. answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken." i know i've taken a bit to get here, but i operate sequentially :-) and in this operation we come full circle...

the way i see it, we've all asked a question we know the answer to. we've all asked a question we didn't want the answer to. we've all not asked the question begging to be asked. we've all asked the wrong question. we've all asked a question and not gotten an answer. we've all asked the question begging not to be asked.

and we should. i won't repeat any of what i've already said, except to say that sometimes it's not necessarily the answers that are important; it's the asking. it's knowing what questions to ask. there's an expression that says "inquiring minds want to know." knowing doesn't mean always getting the answer you want, but part of the knowing is asking the question, which can be just as telling, promising, clear, constructive, instructive--and so on--as the answer. 

i recently prayed a prayer. i didn't ask God for all the answers, because really, sometimes i just don't need to know, and if i knew, maybe that wouldn't good for me. but i did ask God to help me ask the right questions. and i think that's part of the answer to our foibles and faux pas. i hear parents say to their children who are learning to talk, "use your words." i think it applies here. don't assume anything; it makes an ahem out of u and me ;-) ask questions. and don't be afraid of looking stupid. really, there are no wrong questions...unless, of course, you're asking someone who's a little chunky if they're expecting :-)

so, pop the question. your asking might be the answer, even if you don't get the answer you're anticipating...