I remembered back in high school, we were talking about economics in class. We were talking about the topic of printing money, and the teacher asked an innocent question to the class.
What would happen if the US government were to keep on printing money forever and ever? What if?
She ended the class like that. I was waiting for the answer to come up, but it never did. Not in the next class. Not in the next month, not ever. I waited that entire term but the answer never popped up from the teacher.
And that was that. I didn’t think much of the question since then. It was just an innocent question after all. People have things to do and sights to see.
Recently, it got me thinking about people like answers. Solutions to problems. Easy to understand responses that can quickly tie everything up in a neat bow. To solve the issue. To clear things up. To resolve things once and for all.
After all, people like resolutions. To know the answer to everything. But, there will always be questions. There will never be enough answers to answer all the questions in the world.
Sometimes, questions are better left off unanswered. That question about printing money? It led me to think about a wide range of solutions on my own.
Printing money - if left unchecked - will devalue money and lead to inflation across society. Something that may be unsustainable in the long run.
Printing money will increase the money supply in society. It will make the US dollar less valuable across the world.
I’m still not sure what the exact answer to that question in high school would be. But it did allow me to provoke thought in my head. To turn the screws loose so to speak. And to think of possible options and solutions on my own.
Regardless of whether they are right or wrong. It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, it’s nice to just have the question and not know the answer.
To not have everything defined so strictly and forcefully. To leave things open to interpretation.
It provides a bit of flexibility. A bit of looseness to life. A bit of ease knowing that there will always be things left to the unknown. And that’s okay.
Questions are meant to have answers. But those answers breed more questions and on and on and on. It’s kind of impossible to have the answer to everything.
That’s life in a nutshell. An endless mystery. But that’s what makes it so intriguing to experience. To not have everything defined to the minute detail and say this is what it is. Without a doubt. No questions asked.
Things can be more open than that. I’ve been practicing meditation recently. And sometimes, I realize that things don’t always have to have a set reason. You don’t need a why to everything.
Why not just do things for the sake of doing things? Without the need for getting somewhere. Achieving something. Gaining recognition. Obtaining something tangible.
Why not just do it - as the Nike slogan says. Contemplate a little bit and leave things open-mindedly.
The answer is there, but it’s not there for us to grasp on to. It’s simply there for us to see, accept, and then let go of.
The answer can be here. It can be there. It can come and go. And it can change in an instant - depending on the circumstance.
There’s no set answer to life and that’s the wonder of it all. So, what my high school teacher did back then was ingenuous. To finish a class with an open-ended question.
Leave us students thinking for the next class and beyond. Leave us intrigued without a set answer. Leave us spinning our wheels in our heads to come up with the “right” solution.
The answer is within us all. It is here and everywhere. It is something that is fleeting in nature and that is quite okay.
When you eventually have the answer. See it as a doorway to more questions. See it as the beginning of an endless quest in life to discovery the mysteries of the universe. It’s an endless discovery.
But that’s the way life goes.