Why?

So on my almost-daily venture to Caribou Coffee for my almost-daily bout of attempted creativity and otherwise not-having-a-job-ness, there was a man standing on the corner of a major intersection I was going through, and he was holding a large sign with large print that said: "WHY?"

Now, my immediate response to this particular situation (if I was quick-witted enough, and it hadn't been relatively early in the morning (Noonish)) I would have driven past him and cried out my window: "WHY NOT?"
This got a good chuckle out of both my family, some of my friends, some of the Caribou employees.... and then I promptly forgot about it.

Today, in a similar day of not-having-a-job-ness, another man came in for coffee who was holding the same sign. And this time I actually stopped to think about it. 'Why'. An otherwise horrible product or advertisement placing, based on the fact that there was no other explanation of the sign, and it's entirely impossible for one to just stop real quick and ask what the sign is for. Busy intersections are rarely good for that sort of idiocy. So regardless of whatever company, product, ideal, or cause that this sign is standing for, I got to thinking about it.

WHY?

Such a small word, and yet it can bring about the entire downfall of lives, beliefs, faiths. It shakes the steadfastness of the strong and undermines the roots of the immovable, does it not?

WHY?

Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why am I here on this earth?
Why am I not succeeding?
Why is God not speaking to me?
Why is God NOT THERE?
Why, Why, WHY!?

And when a person who truly does have hope in something is posed this question....
"I don't know." "I can't know."

And no answer is good enough to 'why'. Because the question 'Why?' so often comes from the disposition of desperation, weakness, or weariness. And almost no answer can answer enough.
No answer can completely soothe or calm or help.

But that is not to say there's no reason to try. Is not the question "why?" precisely what we must be prepared for? 'To give a reason for the hope that we have'?

It just got me thinking. Maybe it can get you thinking too.




How long will we stand on the street corners with our "God Hates Fags" signs, until we realize that our time is being sorely WASTED on HATING. No... God Hates Haters.

And the Haters aren't answering the questions "WHY?"

Which is the question that destroys.