We have come to the understanding that to question is to learn. At times it seems as though our ability to provide responses lays dormant in the shadow of the unstoppable act of inquiring. No question can be asked without the initiation of another. What then is the worth of said inquiries if we fail to provide long awaited solutions?
The life of a child is fueled by curiosity, a violent necessity to understand all that surrounds us. Even when given an explanation, it is not satisfactory. We must see and experience, for ourselves, the fact that has been revealed. As we age, we curb said inquisitiveness, for most become tired and stray from the quest for truth in an effort to see the end of one more day.
The lack of nostalgia for that which we once were allows us to accept the possibility that everything may exist in black and white. The truth being that life exists fully in every shade of gray and seldom in the two extremes. We question all too much that which is trivial, and pay no second glance to that which is of utmost importance, something outside of ourselves, something beyond our understanding.
Take, as an example, the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. As this is being read, girls and women are being raped, people are being massacred, forcibly displaced, all starving with little to no evidence that there may be validated hope in a better tomorrow. To date, the Janjaweed, a government sponsored militia, has killed at least 450,000 people, displaced more than 2 million leaving even millions more completely reliant on foreign aid. A tragedy of this caliber would not be blanketed in the western world. How then is this tolerable?
The true suffering of others, the innocent blood shed in the name of something of alleged value, the children damned and ignored. As one seeks these truths, denying blissful ignorance, questions flourish. Reaching a certain stage, one continuously questions, without a commitment to contribution, possibly due to the fear inherent in knowing that selflessness is required in order to devote themselves to provide much needed relief, and the hope attached.
Paralyzed, all I can do is ask, why. Why don’t more people know about this? Why are those who know seemingly apathetic? Why doesn’t someone do something? But mostly, and self critically, why do we expect results if we look to those around us without feeling compelled to take some form of action?
By no means must we stop trying to figure out why; why things happen, why the world is in its current condition and why it is important to know the answers to these questions. However, we must realize that our very being is the answer to some of the most gripping of problems. Through our actions those who ask and investigate can be tools of change. People live and die by the deeds of others, not simply through thought.
We operate within the paradox that we must begin to resolve many crucial issues, and yet in order to do so, more questions begin to surface and thus must be answered. It is not beyond belief to think that people have become accustomed to questioning and have forgotten how to respond.
One may ponder eternally, though it will be pointless if it bares no physical manifestation. Too much time has passed since the first utterance of “what can I do to help those who suffer” and the world can’t wait while we continue to silently deliberate. Guilt eventually smothers those who habitually ask what if. What if I had paid a donation? What if I had voted? Could I have made a difference? What if I could have but decided not to?
Now is the time to limit the questions we pose and become the answers to others. Only then might we begin to understand the mysteries of ourselves and our undying thoughts.
Yearn for the innocence of childhood, the belief in justice and the existence of morality. But if we are not willing to exert the effort necessary to be the difference in the world we would like to witness, all may be lost.
As we continue to drown ourselves in endless conundrums, we must realize that it is our very catalyst. That ironically, it all begins with a thought, a notion, a question.
Sarah Al-Mullah is a junior journalism major and a weekly columnist for the Daily Forty-Niner.
