A long time ago.

Wait!

Actually, not so long ago! When I was in 7th Std and my sister was in 2nd we would have what we then called deep discussions.

In fact, along with our dad, we even had a group (not on what’s app, we just called ourselves that), called Smriti

We grew up in a village with no access to electricity, let alone a TV or internet so we spent time reading and talking to real (not virtual) people.

During those deep discussions whenever my sis asked me a question, more often than not, my answer would almost always start with a phrase, yes you guessed it right, it depends.

I think this story elucidates the the point I am trying to make, much better than I ever could.

I’ve been thinking about this again off late. It was triggered by a conversation with a good friend. Who seemed to think of it as an act of escapism or a copout.

I on the contrary, feel that its a mere acknowledgement of the complexity of the nature of truth, our existence and its meaning of perception & perspective and various other subjective, messy topics.

Or

Its a humble admittance of my own ignorance.

Or

More optimistically, its my genuine belief.

Because, I THINK and have to come to believe it more with each passing day. That, there is no such thing as absolute truth or atleast not until you know it yourself.

What is true, depends on you and truth, no matter how profound or enticing, when its not yours (experential) still remains untruth. Thats also why most people have a hard time believing, let alone relating to the hard things that happen to other people in their lives but have vivid recollection of whatever happened to them in their own lives decades ago and continue to view the world from that same lens shaped by their one experience.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ~Maya Angelou

Take any question, and try to think through it and come up with a convincing answer and you’ll see what I mean.

These are some questions I can’t help but start the answer with it depends.

Is there God?

If yes, is he/she/it human or in some other form? Or formless? Or just energy? Or Light Is there one supreme god or are there many? I could go on with this, but I guess you see the point.

Are you happy?

I don’t know, what about you?

Who is the greatest tennis player (or Boxer or Investor or Scientist) of all time?

It seems like a settled one but it depends on how you measure, isn’t it? Some say Rod Laver, others like to go with Roger Federer. But, how do you decide by the number of Grandslam wins? Titles? Matches? Weeks as number one?

What about the times in which they played? The quality of opponents? The role of tech? Global and geo-political situations?

While we imagine or expect most things in life to be binary, either black or white, the truth is that often, they are fifty (or a million shades) of gray.

While its important, essential even, to ask questions for they matter much more than the actual answers. I think, an attempt to find absolute answers to relative, subjective and eternally evolving questions and their context is IMHO at best an exercise in futility.

Thanks for reading, what do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Have a different thought?

Try out some of the questions that lend itself well to this thought experiment and share your comments.