Timmy's essay 1

Timmy O’Brien
Mr. H. Salsich
English 9
16 September 2008

Choose your Questions Carefully:

An Essay about a Quote and a Poem

        Questions are interesting things to think about because, though they are intangible [FAST],they can sometimes feel as solid as a rock. For example, if someone asked you to marry him or her, you might feel winded, but if someone asked you the question, “Why?” would you even answer it? Maybe you would give a round-about answer and be on your marry way, but how can you answer a question that has no definite answer? You could dodge the question, or you could be like Rainer Maria Rilke or George Bernard Shaw and answer by way of telling them how to find the answer.
        Rilke and Shaw both think that one shouldn’t ask foolish questions – that one should keep going with life and will someday run into the answer [loose sentence]. Rilke seems to think that the answers to the unasked questions will find their way to you in due time. He thinks that if you “live the questions now [] perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually […] live your way into the answer.” He seems to say that if you leave the question alone like you would a vicious animal, it will become tamable and then answerable. Mr. Shaw has a different yet similar idea. He thinks that people shouldn’t see things and ask, “Why?” but that people should realize their own dreams and create accordingly. He thinks that if someone asks a foolish question it is only because they have not yet thought of the obvioius. These two thoughts are similar because they both address the futility [FAST] of asking questions that one cannot fully comprehend the answer to. If you can’t fully grasp the meaning of the answer, what would be the point in hearing it? You must slowly be immersed by the question, and then and only then will you be ready for the answer. Either way, they both think that answers are a tool for knowledge, and they must be given out only when they will be used to the fullest extent.
        They also both seem to say that questions and answers should be thought about, dreamed about, and cared about, or else it won’t be appreciated to its fullest extent. Rilke wants questioners to surround themselves in the question – to think and dream about the answer, and if they can do that, then they are ready [loose sentence]. If the questioner thinks about the question like a “locked room[] or [a] book[] written in a very foreign language”, then he or she can learn to love them. In loving them, they are preparing themselves for the end and the answer. Shaw wants people to think of every “why” in their life, and think of a “why not” to counterbalance it. He wants people to not just be skeptical, but creative. He seems to be saying, “If you see something you don’t understand, think of something you can do to make it more understandable and fix your own problem.” Rilke and Shaw seem to be on the same page because they both want people to live the questions. Rilke wants people to love their questions try to become one with them, whereas Shaw wants people to create their own questions and, in turn, develop into part of them. When they have completed that task, they will be ready to face anything in the world. Overall, both of these men want the questioners to love what they can ask, and ask what they love – the questions themselves.
        Whether asking them or answering them, questions are an important part of life. From Rilke’s standpoint, you must ask the questions to be able to live them, and when you have lived them through and through you can be able to answer them. From Shaw’s perspective, you must find the “why not” that corresponds to every “why” in order to succeed in life. Either way, questions are vitally important part of a good life and well-rounded knowledge.