Questions We Must Ask Ourselves

Oh, you don't have to ask yourself any questions, I suppose.

But there are some questions — the biggest ones — that the world won't ask you. You are left to ask yourself these questions. Or they might just go unanswered.

I'm going to ask these questions of a lot of people.
You can leave your answers as comments below. (Menacing legal note: by leaving a comment, you permit me to include your words, with attribution, in any eventual publication.)

Then, I'm going to write a book to encourage more asking.

For now, here's a page you can carry into the woods or post in your cubicle.

The title question — "What is the greatest thing in the world?" — was a first-day-of-class ice-breaker annually asked by John Detrick, my high school geometry teacher. He just wanted to get to know the students and was usually surprised that the question had not been previously considered.
 

 

 

Comments

[Brad Dresbach]

Who do you really love?

What is your favorite thing to do?
Are you doing it?

Is the world better because you are in it?

How can you make the lives better of the ones you love?
How can you make the lives better of people you've never met?

Are you happy?

What makes you sad?
What makes you happy?
What scares you the most?

Why do you care?
If you don't care, why not?

If someone had to describe you in just a couple of words, what would you want them to say?

What personal characteristic/trait is most important for you to exhibit?
What personal characteristic/trait do you admire most in others?

If you could have one wish for the future of your children, what would it be?

When are we going to lunch?

[Jim Sullivan]

Great concept, Artie. Here are the core four questions from my work:

1. What do I believe? (About God, the Universe, Life, and Human Life)
2. Who am I? (What is my identity?)
3. Why am I here/where am I going? (What is my purpose, vision and calling?)
4.How will I live in relationship with others? (To serve or be served?)

[Alexander Hansen]

I like it! Albert Einstein made life hell for his teachers because he asked so many questions. Look where it got him. So here we go.

What is the most important aspect of you?
(What makes you you? What makes you different from EVERY other person on this planet?)
Is that quality important to you?

What interests you and why? (What makes it interesting?)

What are the most important words to you?/What is the most important phrase to you?
What do they/does it mean to you?
Do they mean something different than what they mean to everyone else?

Is there a God? Or does that question not even matter to you?

How do you think the universe began? Is it important to you that that question be answered?

Is uncertainty a bad thing? A scary thing? A difficult thing? An exciting thing?

What don't you know about yourself? What don't you know in general? Do you need to find out?

Is there anything you need to do before you die? Any people you need to meet? Food you need to try? Places you need to go? Why?

To Artie: What question's answer most uniquely identifies someone to you?

[Nick Tomashot]

What happens when you die? (I think this is the root concern of any questions relating to God.)

Are people naturally "good", with some making "bad" or selfish choices because of the influence of their environment and experiences? Or are people naturally flawed and selfish, requiring self-discipline to overcome this? (Probably could be worded better, but something like this gets into things like crime, justice, good, evil, sin, etc.)

Define "quality" -- just kidding, that's been done...

[Brad Dresbach]

I remember someone once asking the question:
What are you passionate about?
Answering it was insightful.
I wish I could remember who asked it.

[Zach Friedman]

What, given everything possible goes as planned and there are no barriers or limits, would you be doing 5 years from now?
What did you do today to help you reach that goal?
What else did you spend your time on today?
If you cut out everything else besides what helped you with your goal, would the world end?
What are you waiting for?

When your inner critic ask's yourself a question in an angry, demoralizing tone, something like "Why are you dancing in front of all these people? You know you can't dance": do not answer. Instead, ask yourself a question, "What would a 3 year old do?". Then do that.

If you ever find yourself wrong, don't ask "Why was I wrong?". Instead, ask "What was my underlying assumption that lead to my decision?" and "How was I misguided in that assumption, and what needs to change". You are never 'wrong', just misinformed and misguided. That is easy to change with the right mindset.

[Chas Roscow]

Artie asks: "Whose death disturbs you the most?"

It was Sunday evening on September 28, 1980. I rarely had a fight or even disagreement with my parents. But this one particular night I stormed out of my parents home, jumped in my car, and drove off mad back to my college dorm. I was angry from a fight I'd just had with my Dad about me wanting to buy a different car than the one I had since High School, a car he had helped me obtain when I was 16. I was so upset I figured “I'll fix him”. And for the first time in my life, at age the age of 20, I left the house without giving my Dad a hug and kiss goodbye - I didn't even say goodbye. I drove white-knuckled for the first hour of the three-hour drive back to college. The last two hours my heart hurt a bit because I didn’t like how I felt about myself for what I did. My Dad and I were close. He was my hero. He never missed one of my hockey or baseball games - not even a practice. But determined I was. Determined to prove I was not a kid anymore. In fact, stubbornly, I didn't even call him the next day to apologize for my act that undoubtedly hurt his feelings. That Wednesday at 7am the phone rang in my room. It was my older sister Gail. She said that I should come home; she said “Dad is sick”. My Dad had already had two heart attacks by the time he was 48. I vividly recall what went through my mind at that moment. I thought “oh please God - don’t let him die, not now, please don’t take him from me”. Nervous, I simply said to my sister “ok; I’ll be home as fast as I can get there”. Within 10 minutes I was in the car speeding towards Lakeville, Massachusetts, to the home on a lake my Dad purchased for the family after he retired from a career in the US Navy. I prayed the entire three-hour ride back home. I apologized out-loud in the car for not going to church as much as my parents wanted me to. I asked God again to watch over my Dad. “Get us through this; please God” I said. When I entered the house the entire family was there - and not at work. He had died on the kitchen floor that morning. I didn’t cry. I had to be strong for my two sisters who were a mess in tears. I comforted my mother. I was frozen. He had already been taken away by the ambulance. Three days later I entered the funeral home and saw him for the first time since our fight. It was then I broke down. I cried so hard I could not breathe. I could not control myself. My mother, stronger than any of us combined, had my Uncle Cecil take me home. I could not even be in the funeral home.

Someone once said time heals all. This is not true. In fact, not having my father in my life has become harder to cope with every year. I want more than anything to see him one last time. Just once more to tell him thank you for everything he did for not just me, but the whole family. Today I am 51 years old. My wife and I are blessed with two beautiful sons of our own. Little Freddie and Jack. I look into their eyes with amazement. I finally now see the devotion and unconditional love a parent has for their children. I now see why my Dad made such a fuss over me. Why he insisted on always running interference in my life, making sure I was making good decisions. Why his face lit up whenever he saw me after work, how he hugged me all the time. Even in front of my friends. The greatest motivation in my life now is the challenge of being as good a parent as my parents were to me. I want to teach my sons the same lessons I received growing up. I want to provide my two boys with the same shot at success - and happiness – that I had.

Artie asked a question. He got an answer. I hope at least one person reads this and takes my advice. Here it is: Write down a few of the most important people in your life. The few you love the most – the few you would not want to live without. Now suppose YOU were to die tomorrow. Who would you call, and what would you say? Make those phone calls by next Sunday.

Chas Roscow

[Holly Solomon]

My favorite I use a lot is,

"What would someone say about you if I were to ask them to describe you?"

If someone asked me this question, I am forced to think hard about what my image is and how they would describe it. I then work harder to make sure I'm always building the right image and share with the person asking the question my most known attributes.

So what would Artie say about Holly?

[Toby D.]

I can answer questions. I know who I am and who I want to be. I know where I want to go, who I want to go with, and what I want to do. I even know what has kept me from doing all these things. "Well,you are 90% of the way there," you say. Maybe. But if I can't get past that 10% gap then the vision never becomes real and the answers lack value. I know what I must do to jump higher,further,better. So only one question remains. How do I make myself jump?

[Patrick Gant]

What will you do when you stop worrying about the future, agonizing over the past and instead live in the present? Will you keep waiting for events to let that happen, or will you allow yourself to simply be?

[Karen Gould]

Why am I here? Why am I doing the things I am doing? What matters?
These are the questions that haunt me. I graduated from high school over twenty-five years ago and our class motto was "It just doesn't matter." I was mortified at the time. But truth be told, almost everything that captures most people's time and attention "just doesn't matter."