The Insatiable Question of Why

Questions are inescapable aspects of life. "What's for dinner?" "How did you do that?" "Where is the party?" "When are we meeting?" Nothing would ever get done without questions. But there is one form of question that has more power and more influence on our lives than any other question. It is the "why" question. The word "why" is a fascinating word, it is an open-ended question, it requires a detailed answer. The only answer to a why question that is vague is "I don't know." (Maybe the answer "I don't know" is ultimately the most sincere.) That is fundamentally why we get so frustrated with this question, because either you know the answer and it's concrete and makes sense or you don't and it's maddening.

Think back to when you were a little kid about 3 to 5 years old (or think of a kid about that age that you know). The most frequently used word out of that kid's mouth (next to maybe "no") is "why." "Why is the sky blue?" "Why do I have to brush my teeth?" "Why do you get to do this and I can't" "Why do dogs bark?" "Why don't rabbits bark?" Why, why, why, why why? This question is maddening for the parent because they can not possibly have the answer to all of the questions and it's maddening for the child because they expect all the answers.

Even though life teaches us that not all questions, especially the why questions, have answers that we have access to right now we still have that four-year-old mentality of thinking that they should. Why questions will haunt us from the time we can think them until the day we pass away. But that doesn't mean we can't come to terms with these seemingly unanswerable questions. Often times when a question that hurts and haunts us the most that we take to those we trust and they hold no answers for us, and we turn them over in our heads over and over again until we've looked at it from a million sides, even some sides that don't really exist, until we have more questions and confusion than we did before. It is at that point, the point of why-exhaustion that we have our choice of roads: sink into the dark and desperate abyss or trust in that almost silent voice that tells you that it's okay that you don't have the answer.

"And I said unto him: I know that He loveth His children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." 1 Nephi 11:17