I’m a bicyclist (if I haven’t already told you), and I found myself at the bicycle shop today. I found a question actually. Then I found its answer a few minutes later.
I was waiting to be helped by one of the attendants when I noticed hundreds of bicycles dangling from the rafters; each precariously hung above the service area. A wall separates the counter from the service area, but it’s a low one. I could easily see the rafters above it and behind it.
The question that came to mind was, How do they hang all these bikes up? I imagined a ladder, a large pole, even a jerry-built crane. I could have easily asked the attendant once I stepped up to order my tire, and I wanted to (Boy, did I want to). But I waited, and a minute later I watched another attendant climb a secret set of stairs then pass along a hidden gangway where he hung a bicycle up. There was my answer; a hidden gangway.
Have you ever seen a movie with someone who constantly asked questions about the motive of characters, or the twist of a plot, only to have that question answered minutes later? If she would only have waited, you wouldn’t have had to answer her. Personally, I sometimes play the ignorance card but often don’t know myself. I too have to wait and figure it out.
It’s true we live in a digital age where information is given to us, where it is packaged and searched for so readily over the internet. Reason is more efficient when someone can give it to you instantly. Why waste the time trying to figure it out on your own? Remember the Borg on Star Trek? Just assimilate it, it’s faster.
Waiting for an answer even if it doesn’t materialize is a hard thing to do, I admit. This notion flies in the face of our educations. We were meant to ask for the answer. But ask yourself this (and please tell me if you feel otherwise), are we better for being given the answer or are we better for figuring it out on our own?
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