Recently, I have been answered so many I don´t know´s to questions that were really not that difficult. I wasn´t asking things like “What is the global economy going to look like in 5 years?” or “Who do you think will win the next election in Belize” or “How many of our friends do you think will still be together in 15 years?”.
My questions were more about what people think, what they feel, why they liked a certain thing.
I have a friend who just returned home after a year spent abroad in my country. During the months we have known each other, he told me a few times how he fell in love with Sweden when he went there on a spontaneous short trip a few years ago. So, just before departing with him on a short vacation -probably moved by a latent desire to figure out what we could possibly want to do or see during the upcoming travel- I candidly asked him “What is it that you liked so much about Sweden?”
“I don´t know”.
We were sitting in a park, on the side of a pond. It was a peaceful and lazy afternoon during the week, and only students and pensioners were strolling around us. His answer made me think of one morning in my freshmen year in high school, as my teacher told us one thing that made sense to me more than most of the theories and facts that I was later asked to learn.
“We read poetry, here” she said, raising her voice as to catch our attention. “And literature that made history. It can be excellent according to the critics and yet it can mean nothing to you or you might even detest it. Or you can love it. It actually doesn´t matter, as long as you are able to explain why. Nobody is here to tell you what is good and what is not. You decide for yourself. But you have to know why”.
I was surprised at this random recollection and deep inside I thanked my teacher for that statement because I understood that back then she planted a seed which would allow me to appreciate my life experiences more.
Surely you can just like something without asking yourself why. Ultimately, it´s not that you are constantly expected to justify your perception of the world. It´s more subtle, though, it´s a deeper, broader level. It´s like activating a million synapses, if you can explain to yourself why you are experiencing a pleasant moment. Or even an unpleasant one. If you question your perception, you better understand yourself and what surrounds you.
And being able to give words to this is nothing but enrichment. For yourself and the others.
I promise to myself that I will always make the effort to find a better answer than "I don´t know".
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