fungible thoughts

My toddler is now two years old. “Why?” has become a way of life around here. The act of asking why causes one to think about the consequences of being curious. The butterfly effects may not be ecological in scale in most cases, but the trail of where one asks why leads individuals down the path which makes up their personalities.

Where and when we ask why determines the what in our lives.

Being curious is a trait derived from the attempt to form patterns from unrelated events, emotions, people, or things. Curious individuals are those who seek connections and desire continuity. They seek a logical pathway from A to B. When none exists, some give up. Others do not. This point where some relationship is not intuitive is where we derive our personality. The act of asking why leads us down a path which reenforces certain neurological pathways which make up how we perceive the world.

There exist certain inflection points in everyone’s lives where we asked why or why not and made a pivotal decision. We can all identify at least one event which forever changed our lives. We are constantly valuing and revaluing these inflection points relative to the current state of our lives.

Those who dwell on the what if’s of life are curious about time. They self indulge in fantasy to try to either predict the future or re-imagine the present by playing through certain decisions in the past. This curiosity about the past and the act of paying attention is what makes successful people, both in personal and professional avenues.

The act of visualizing new or renewed timelines is critical to forming opinions on the pivotal decisions of today. Our outlook on life depends on if we view these past events in a critical, negative manner or in a positive, self-constructive manner.

Everyone is at some level a product of their environment(s). Having access to certain technologies, information, and people dictate who we grow up to be as adults. The act of asking why needs to be complemented by access to these critical resources. If you were curious about how the atoms are split, what quasars are, or what the ultimate nature of reality is, you need access to people and information which can address these questions. When you don’t have access, the questions remain. How long you hold onto these whys dictates who we are as people.

Returning to the retroactive importance we assign to certain events in our lives, there exist also select events which determined who and where we are today which we assign no value or have no memory of. Events either beyond our control, or (dis)missed opportunities. We had an idea about some relationship between A and B, asked why, received no answer (or some basic, seemingly sufficient answer), then continued living our lives instead of pursuing that specific train of thought.

Every why we ask in our lives is an inflection point which varying levels of importance on our journeys on Spaceship Earth.

Ask why and don’t be afraid to dismiss the whys that you don’t think matter. Think critically about the whys of your life and analyze the importance you assign to different areas of your life. Be self-critical in a self-affirmative manner. Learn who you are through your whys.

Thanks for reading,

/tommander-in-chief

Bonus fact:

The rise in the average cost of U.S. homeowners insurance between 2001 and 2020 was notable — up to 145% — and well in excess of the 61% increase in median household income over the same period. As climate change bites harder, more expensive policies and fewer options might worsen the financial burden on households already trying to navigate an inflationary economy.