Why Are We Here?

“Asking ‘why’ is one of the most important strategies children have for connecting with their caregivers and learning about the world around them.”

Dr. Dawn Taylor, Psychologist, Penn State

"The only problem with an opinion is that most people don't ask that key question that they once asked so frequently - “why?”  Why do I hold this opinion? Why does it have merit? Why is this the best way?"

Matthew Sanderson, User Experience Developer

You find lubricant on the floor, and leakage is an abnormal state. Now you have two choices – clean it up or ask why. Why is there lubricant on the floor?  It leaked from the machine. Why is the machine leaking? Because the seal is damaged. Again, you can simply replace the seal or ask why again. Why is the seal damaged? Because there are metal shavings in the lubricant. Why are there metal shavings in the lubricant? Because the filter on the lubricant pump is damaged. Why is the filter damaged? Because it gets damaged by contaminants falling into the machine.

5 Whys of Root Cause Analysis

Who am I?  What am I?  When am I?  Where am I?  Why am I?

There's that word again, "why."

Many people would add "how" to this list of five Ws.  How is really answered by the five Ws.  "How" does not enter into Root Cause Analysis, as stated in the quote above, but then, neither are the other Ws.  Why?

Try this exercise.  Ask yourself each of the Ws about yourself, as I did above.  Answer each question with, "Why?"  Why are you asking, "Who am I?" or "What am I?"  It is difficult to do it immediately, and it may be difficult to answer at all.

Now do the same exercise and ask each of the Ws about God.  No one can answer, to a certainty, any of the questions.  The most we can do is philosophize about them.  Now, for each question, ask why you are asking.  "Why are you asking, "Who is God?" etc.

 

More difficult?  Of course.  If you can't answer the questions about yourself, you will never come close to having a clue about God.  But, so many religious and spiritual scholars would have you believe they have the answer.  Their way is the right way. 

 

So, what's the point?

 

Everything in your life begins with you.  From the moment your conception begins your perception, and how your perceive is in large part based on "why."

 

I have come to a point in life where I think I have answered, for my own purposes, my who, what, when, and where.  How is a moot point as it either is, or is not.  Yoda would be proud.  I think why it is or is not is much more important.  So, I am left with, "Why am I?"  A question that has occupied me for almost forty-five years.

 

When I was in high school I should have died in a motorcycle accident.  I was hit by a car after I ran a stop sign, the bike and I went under the bumper and the car came to a stop.  Then, I was thrown over the hood of the vehicle as if by some unseen force.  Remember, the car had come to a stop.  Witnesses confirm it as an oddity.  I only remember that, prior to running the stop sign, everything began running in slow motion and I never heard my buddy, on a bike behind me, yelling at me to stop.  Why was I alive?  Why was I saved?  Why was I able to be thrown over a car after it came to a stop? 

 

This was also my first experience with my mind blacking out to protect me from oncoming pain.  I blacked out when I saw the bumper, again after I woke up flying over the car, again after the first bounce as I realized each time that there was more probable pain to come.

 

My first tour in the military caught me driving a 510 Datsun wagon in the desert late one night.  I dozed at the wheel and woke up in time to over correct after going off onto the soft sandy shoulder.  I blacked out as I flipped the car, woke half way through the rolling, woke again after I landed on my back in the desert.  Laid there for a while listening to the wheels until they stopped spinning.  I could just see the upside down vehicle no far from me.  Checking my body, I was in shock but nothing was broken.  A California Highway Patrolman took me out to the vehicle a week later and explained why I shouldn't be alive.  If I'd been wearing a seat belt I would have stayed in the car and been shredded by everything inside that had come loose.  It was a mix-master.  They surmised I must have been thrown out the back hatch as the doors were sealed as it rolled side over side, before it went end over end.  Why was I alive?  And why was I able to be thrown out of the rear hatch of the wagon without serious injury?

 

These were only two of several instances that made me consider the question, "Why am I here?"  Was it my marriage?  No, it went south a while back.  My kids?  Possibly.  My grand kids?  Probably?  It might be this recent spiritual journey I am on, the blog, posting my thoughts on "The Path," and even founding the Congregation for Religious Tolerance.  One thing is certain, I have always known that the answer to my question hasn't presented itself yet and I may not be around when it does.

 

My thoughts go back to the prisoner that was paroled after serving time for murder and dies of cancer before he can be released.  He had found God while inside and was at peace with his death.  He saw it as God's way of letting him be reborn so he could find the man he murdered and make amends.  Is this why I'm here?  Am I, somehow, making amends for something I've done in a past life?  Or, am I a tool to guide someone onto their own path, a catalyst.  Then, if that's the case, maybe the belief that we are all on converging paths, heading toward the same destination is not far from wrong.

 

Why am I here?  Why are you here?

I hope that, in the grand scheme of things, God's answer to this question isn't just, "because."

In the meantime, we need to keep searching, keep believing, and keep asking why.  It is, after all, what we do.