I remember sitting in the living room, the book open in my father’s lap. He flipped through the pages and rested his finger on a question.
“What is osmosis?”
And so it would be. We, my brother and I, would by turns answer the questions and share what we had learned. We had already done our homework, but it was a requirement that we come home each day and read to learn the answers to a few of the questions in our set of Tell Me Why books.
I have two of the volumes still, and they sit on a lower shelf along with my copy of Every Child’s Book of Why and When and my mythology book (in Greek). The pages are yellowed and somewhat brittle, a checkmark made in pencil on the left of each title that was learned. The smell of the past slowing rises as I open one of the books.
What is the difference between frogs and toads?
Can a porpoise talk?
What causes our dreams?
How does the blood circulate?
What is the mystery of the sphinx?
I’m surprised that I didn’t care about how libraries began or how prisons originated, but we had four volumes – a lot to get through when you’re a kid.
My father loved to read, and it is a great trait that he passed along to me. It is through books and the desire to know that we created a special bond, swapping books and stories, asking questions out loud, and always providing a rather certain opinion or perspective.
It’s not just about why, but how and who and when. I think I’m far more curious than George. Questions lead to answers that lead to questions, and the great unknown seems to become bigger not smaller. So many questions remain.
I wonder how someone decided that these questions were the ones kids would ask. Experience I’m sure. But what about the questions that adults would ask? What if we could create a volume – or two or more – to house all of the questions that we as adults want to have answered? What would those questions be?
I thought I’d start a random list and see where it leads. There are some obvious and universal questions – Why do we exist? What happens when we die? What’s the recipe for the secret sauce? But we’ll leave those off the list for now.
Here goes:
- How do you get lost if wherever you go there you are?
- Do your feet really get bigger as you age?
- How is it possible to ‘think and get rich?’
- Why have we never encountered other beings like ourselves?
- Or have we?
- Was there really a lost city of Atlantis? (Perhaps this is covered in the Tell Me Why books)
- Why do people have such difficulty merging in traffic?
- To go along with that, why do people in the grocery line wait until a total is presented before whipping out their checkbook or credit card?
- What does the ending mean in Mulholland Drive
? Heck, what does the entire movie mean?
- Why can’t I seem to get through The Master and the Margarita
?
- What’s so magical about the blue liquid people use as a cleaning agent – on everything?
- When will the turtle eggs hatch?
- What is the point?
How about you?
