If you could receive an explanation of or for anything that you just can't figure out, what would you want to have explained to you?

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• People always say what one is meant to do with it is pass it on to future generations. Unfortunately, it seems as if they don't want it, it just doesn't compute with them until they've had some on-the-job-of-life experience, and it ends up being something they kick themselves for not accepting earlier when they acquire it on their own "the hard way." So it goes.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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• There might actually be people who think they know that, sadly enough.
  
  When my mother passed away and my young nephews asked why, someone told then that "God needed more angels, and Grandma was such an angel already." My nephew turned to me and said, "My mother always says taht soem people think you are such an angel to everyone that it makes her sick. I guess that means she doesn't want you to die."
  
  Then, I was sobbing in near convulsions at the funeral, and someone came up and told me to calm down because my mother had "gone to her eternal rest" because I had come to the point in my life when I could and should start facing the world without her, and that meant that "her work here was done." I couldn't help myself; I said, "Look, I know I am breaking down and making a spectacle of myself right now, and you don't think that in itself will get me sent off on multiple guilt trips later? Now I'm supposed to feel as if my mother suffered through congestive heart failure for years just because she couldn't rest until I got my act together? Do I look like I've got my act together here?"
  
  I hope that the people around you will respect the complexity of your quest to make sense of your loss, which, I know from what you've told me, has forced you to confront circumstances beyond what most of us are forced to deal with as we grieve. I hope that you will never forget that you are entitled to grieve and question however much, for however long, and in whatever way you need to. I'm truly sorry that you have to wrestle with such a difficult and painful question.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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• I'm glad you found the answer you need. I'd miss ya if you were hauled off to jail! :)

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• I'm very well connected, Lucinda..the fix is in! :D

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  by I'm Just Along For The Ride on February 18th, 2011

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• I guess that if you had an answer on that one, a lot more things would fall into place. I finally decided to make up my own answer and stick with it. After all, celebrated philosphers have done so, and since I don't see that there are any special qualifications that entitle one to the title "philosopher," who's to say I can't play philosopher myself?

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• According to the great philosopher Douglas Adams, the answer is... 42.
  
  It's actually 43, but earth humans made a small error in the translation.

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  by LarryH54 on February 18th, 2011

• Well, then maybe I should rethink my solution. When I added things up in my head, it made sense, but maybe I should have used a calculator.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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• When I couldn't master them, I gave up quite quickly. I decided that I didn't care how I might be perceived by people who would have some issue with my need for a fork in spite of all the other things I go out of my way to do to make social situations comfortable for everyone. Whose sole claim to having class, I rolled my eyes and asked myself, was that he/she could grasp kung pao chicken between two sticks anyhow? Shouldn't such a person, perhaps, be working on interpersonal issues much larger than proficiency with utensils?
  
  That's not an attitude I'm proud of because, for starters, it goes against my overall belief in the inherent value of pursuing new skills and experiences. When I hear of someone actually taking the trouble to practice with chopsticks at home, I feel as if that's the kind of approach I respect and try to take towards new skills and towards things that I don't "get" right away.
  
  I think using chopsticks is supposed to be one of those skills that seems baffling at first and then just "clicks" at some point--one of those things akin to riding a bicycle in that once people get the hang of it, they really can't explain how it's done. Unless these kind of skills just come to me naturally right off the bat, I find it much easier to learn things that I can get at logically and master by analysis, no matter how complicated or demanding they might be.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• I know what you're saying. Part of me says "Why do I need to learn this?" but there are things in life I'd like to just know, like chopsticks, how to drive a manual transmission car, and American sign language. (And how to play the piano better.) So far I'm only practicing piano and chopsticks. Recently a group of friends were at a Chinese restaurant (which put forks on the table, thank goodness) and someone asked a guy if he wanted chopsticks. "No, thanks," he said. "I was born in America." It made me laugh and it made me feel a little better about my inability to use them!

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  by JPsgirl on February 18th, 2011

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• I took a course in it and feel fairly comfortable with the "who-thinks-what" part, but I don't always get the "how-did-we-get-from-point A-to-point B" part or the "how-this-one-guy's-ideas-are-related-to-that-other-guy's" business.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• Yes? Very difficult to read (and I am only reading translations) and mentally keep track of. Seems to require a certain way of looking at things, of apprehending. Ties my brain in knots.

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  by Anonymous on February 18th, 2011

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• I regret to inform you, Spooner, that everything in the universe is conspiring to hack you off.
  
  The good news is that that doesn't mean everything and EVERYONE. I myself was asked to participate in the effort, but I got out of it by insisting that I have always been a pain in the rear end so often and to so many folks just by being myself that I never bothered to learn how to get on other people's nerves intentionally. I guaranteed them I will be an annoyance to you at some point, and all I've got to do is act naturally.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• That's a lot of issues Spooner! lol Best, Jonathan

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  by Jonathan on February 18th, 2011

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• You're welcome.
  
  Anyway, all I would have to offer you is the curiosity I displayed in the posted question. I have no explanations for anyone who responds. In fact, if this had been someone else's question, I wouldn't have been able to answer it because I wouldn't be able to narrow the field down to one thing that I'd like to have explained to me, and I wouldn't trouble anyone with the task of explaining to me how I might succeed in narrowing that field in the first place.
  
  Perhaps what I can give you is the motivation to be proud of and grateful for the sense of clarity that you've achieved. Folks like me have never had it, never will! Have a good one!

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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• I'd like to know them all because I'm endlessly curious, but part of me gets a kick out of stockpiling things I wish I understood, asking myself questions about them, and feeling humbled by how silly my own areas of expertise seem in comparison to those of truly intelligent people.
  
  Perhaps I just enjoy basking in my own stupidity.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

• I felt humbled by the truly intelligent until i hit the first wall of knowledge and found myself sat with the greatest thinkers at the same sign post that said 'no further'. I went down other 'experts' routes and found the same signposts. There is so much that can't be known. You may just be inches away from one of those signposts and not know it. I love the unanswerables as much as the answerables but my favorite is a section that lies between. There is a class of questions that are answerable but not understandable by humans because we aren't sufficiently complex enough. I love knowing exactly how stupid i am. lol. Ignorance is bliss, i will bask with you. ^_^

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  by Ombliss22 on February 18th, 2011

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• What I really wonder about is why some people think that they know the truth about aliens already and why they would laugh at people who are interested in the possibility of life beyond Earth.
  
  I wonder about why people think that they can say with total certainty that there is no intelligent life on any other planet in the infinite universe and think that it's ridiculous to believe that aliens might exist somewhere. We cannot even agree upon how there came to be intelligent life on our own planet, so how do we know that no such thing happened anywhere else?
  
  I don't personally believe in aliens, but I don't think anyone knows the truth.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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• I think the idea of the pyramids and our inability to explain them is a great reminder that we shouldn't think of ourselves as wholly superior to the people who have gone before us. We tend to think we have advanced in figuring out what there is to know and finding better ways to live and are thus superior in every way to those who came before us. How can we say that when they achieved things we cannot explain? Isn't it more intriguing anyway to imagine a world of endless possibilities and discoveries that human beings are potentially capable of making even though we ourselves cannot understand them? That strikes me as a better way to imagine things as a whole.

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  by Lucindaoffthecuff on February 18th, 2011

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