What Should I Do? Why?

Some men have written that the one question which defines mankind is: Why? “Why” is the question which causes mankind to seek out the largest, most distant worlds, and peer down into the smallest. Looking with ever more powerful telescopes and microscopes, man seeks to answer why everything is the way it is. Many say it is a never-ending journey of man, his eternal quest for knowledge, his ultimate evolution. To them I ask: Why?

A man does not start out his life asking “why”. As a baby, his earliest question is an unvoiced “What should I do?” What should I do if I’m hungry; then the baby learns to cry and later to say: “I’m hungry”. What should I do to get attention, to get love, or not be alone; then the baby learns that crying gets this, but then it learns that many, many other things also achieve this, from a smile, the word “up”, and then later still, the subtle actions that make others want to do things for us, to love us. It is one of the earliest discoveries, man realizing he can control his environment: by his actions, he can change what he does or doesn’t like.

Of course these things I described are not unique to man. A dog can do them. It asks (in a language we’ve never learned to translate) “What should I do?” Then it learns it is to fetch the ball. If it likes that (because of the smiles and hugs afterward), it learns to pick up a ball and drop it at his master’s feet – and the master will throw the ball. So, the dog also can learn to control his environment. Both man and dog begin to learn by asking in some manner “what should I do”, and use their senses to take in the answers – what they see, hear, smell, taste or touch, and from these they gain knowledge. Many “wise” men say that animals, including man, ONLY gain knowledge from these senses; there is no other way. Only men among the animals, however, begin to ask another question, they take the knowledge they’ve gained, consider it, and begin to ask “why”. In seeking and gaining answers to “why”, man turns knowledge into wisdom. Here man does what no dog can do.

“Why” is a good question for man to ask; it puts him above animals and enables his dominion of natural things. In asking why, man has found that material things have rules, and following those rules he can control the world around him. No longer content with putting the ball at the master’s fee to cajole him to toss it, man can in effect now say “Toss that ball or I’ll bite your leg off; throw it or I will destroy you.” Answers to the question “why” are good things, they are knowledge and knowledge gives man wisdom and with it power -- but power can be abused.

From the earliest asking of “what should I do”, a humble servant-like question, many men have grown up and chosen to ask only the question “why”, because “why” gives them power, and some men crave it. It can be addictive. But some why-askers would deny that: “If I can do something, why shouldn’t I? Isn’t that evolution, survival of the fittest? If I, through my “wisdom” have learned I have power, am I not then the “fittest of men?” Why shouldn’t I do what you (in your petty ignorance) call abuse of power? I am the greatest with my wisdom; I define power! Why not?!

Why not, indeed. This is the situation of much of the world right now, with leaders asking “why not” to their desired actions, and only accepting an answer from someone demonstrably more powerful. But wait a moment, we said man with his wisdom moved above animals, but isn’t this definition of the greatest among men, the ones with the most power, the same as the definition for any other animal? Is this what man should use his wisdom for, the wisdom which puts him above animals, is its best use to put us back at the animal level again? Where are we at? Is man really no different than animals? Is man at his heart just an animal?

“Where are we at” is a good question. I think, at the moment, where some men are at is a pause in their “evolution”, their growing in wisdom. It’s kind of like the child who discovers birthdays, with cakes and presents, and says: “Hey, this is great! I want every day to be my birthday!” Now someone wiser might say that is silly, but what if the child “had the power”? What if he could demand: Every day IS my birthday! This is where many men are at, in their wisdom. They think that if other kids have fun and like giving them gifts and eating cake, everyone is happy. Why not everyday my birthday? They are not wise enough, and perhaps not their friends either, to know that the other kids cannot keep giving gifts forever, nor can they only eat cake forever. Bad things will happen, but they don’t understand that.

In man’s becoming wiser to the rules of nature and how he can use them, man has forgotten that despite all the power this gives him, he is still part of nature. The rules apply to him also, and just knowing them doesn’t exclude him from them. And in this, despite all his “wisdom”, man has no power. He cannot change the rules of nature. (And strangely, despite his great “wisdom”, here he doesn’t ask: why?)

One of the most basic rules of nature, as man has discovered, is that actions cause reactions, and reactions have a cause. Always. It’s a rule of nature. A rock doesn’t move itself; something causes it to move. Every movement is caused by something else.

Another rule of nature is that evolution is a survival of the fittest, or looked at another way, the constant betterment of nature – although no one quite knows why it evolves toward better versus worse, or for that matter, what is the “best” it is evolving toward. What is nature, and man, evolving toward? Now there are a few (thankfully few) men who think that this is it – we HAVE evolved to the “best”; man is in control of any of his further evolution. To which most of the rest of us respond: THIS is … IT?? THIS is as good as it gets? (Good grief, Charlie Brown! Where is Lucy’s Advice for Five Cents booth? I think I’m going insane!)

I think man’s problems today can be very much alleviated if he would look at those two basic rules he has discovered, and apply them to himself: His movement (like any other movement) is caused by something, and it is causing him to move/evolve in a good direction. Consider those two things. Think! We’re back at our first question: something wants to move us, and it will be good. Well then, “What should I do?” is the right question to ask. Where should I move to, this good direction you wish to move me? If we see it as a rule, that we are being moved for a good and the only thing which stops this good is my free will – I could choose to do something not good – then why wouldn’t I in my wisdom not choose to do the “not good” thing, but instead just let the good thing intended, intended by the rules, happen? Why would I want to stop this “evolution” for my good?

At its heart, the answer to why I would choose a bad thing is pride. I don’t like that I didn’t make the rules, and I can’t change them. As I found that I could control nature, I wanted to control the rules, largely because I found great happiness when I controlled SOME things. I like the results I created – I liked being like a god. I created my happiness. But while we are very pleased that we know many rules of nature, we forgot the answer to one of our “why” questions. “Why is nature evolving to something better?” We don’t know.

That lack of wisdom causes some men to say “We’re there; this is the end.” These people are like the children who discover that birthdays are a wonderful thing, and because they don’t understand that many more wonderful things await them, they want to stop right there: birthdays for everyone, forever! If they only realized what wonderful things await them if they would grow up. Oh, in order to grow up there will be growing pains, no doubt, but that is part of the rules also! Things were made that way, that by trials they become strengthened, become even better.

This is where we are really at in our personal evolution, my friends, on the path – and we can’t stop; we can’t change the rules. Some think we are at a birthday party and want to stay there; some are going through growing pains. Each in his “wisdom” asks himself “why” and decides what to do about it, acting as mini-gods – I am in control; I will do something about this. But we forget we are just beings in nature, living under rules we cannot control. We ask ourselves “why” and decide to act, when we should never have stopped asking our earliest question “what should I do?”

When we were young, we asked “what should I do” of someone more powerful than us. As we grew older, in our pride we thought we were most powerful and only asked that question of ourselves. We forgot the rules, which never changed. We are not in total control. Everything we do is in reaction to something else. All those somethings are directing us toward a good, albeit one we don’t understand. Why would we not focus all our efforts at asking or understanding the answer to the question “what should I do?”

Why, indeed. I don’t have the answer that that particular “why”, but I think it includes a consideration of “to whom” we are asking that most basic question? To whom are we asking “what should I do”, ourselves or the one who acts so that we could react? Ourselves, or the one who acts only to make us better? Ourselves, or the one who knows the ultimate good we are moving towards, the one who MADE the rules?

As you move through life, do you ask more often “why”, or do you ask “what should I do?” Who are you asking? Are you content with “this is as good as it gets?”

I don’t know about you, my friends, but I agree with the saying “It’s hard to be humble.” Still, I do want the answer to MY ultimate “why’s”, and so I am not too proud to get down on my knees, and, humbly, to ask: “What should I do … Lord?” Asked of the right person, that question will get me all the answers I need, lead me to the ultimate of my evolution, and answer all of my whys. All of them.

Peace.