Why? That is the question!
Ever got tired of fielding the incessant stream of why's from your toddlers? Perhaps we all were.
No doubt we were as demanding from our own parents when we were toddlers too. Same or similar thoughts must have flashed across their own minds at the time, while they silently prayed for us to grow up quickly, and be saved from that tedious aspect of parenting.
OK, now that we have grown up, educated, intelligent and all that stuff to our credit, have we stopped asking the question: why?
NO, we haven't.
I am tempted here to pose the question: why?
While toddlers may pose questions like, "Why did you take your teeth out to brush them?", we are tempted ask questions like: "Why are we here?", "Where are we going?", "Is there life after death?", and so on.
When we were toddlers, ours would have been seemingly innocent questions. The answers may not have been understood then.
Aren't the present-day questions, on the face of it, innocent? Though they remain so, we still don't understand the answers to these questions.
Ask a thousand people these questions; you are likely to receive a thousand different answers.
How can the search for answers to these questions enrich our lives?
Technology has changed our lives to such an extent, that new species of humans, totally dependent on gadgets have evolved, practically overnight. Cultures, languages, habitats unique to them have also evolved in parallel.
The social impact of this mouse-driven species is so dramatic that there are rising fears that this degree of technological progress may not be maintainable in the future. This is because the degree to which brains have been demoted in daily existence.
The most important element in fostering creativity is brain-hand coordination.
Gone are the days when people had to use real tools to design aircraft. The A380 was designed by an army of mice!
As Albert Einstein is supposed to have said (according a recent e-mail I received) that what matters is not with what the World War III will be fought, but it is the fact that World War IV will be fought with sticks.
So, what will our future generations, having surrendered their creativity to mice, hope to flourish on?
Have you read Douglas Adam's The Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy?
Please spare the time to read it.
What, you have no time?
Who stole it then?