In my previous post, “Laughter or Locusts?”, I wrote about how a Shabbat dinner with my family sparked a lively discussion about spreading happiness. During dessert, the topic took a profound turn, whereby everyone at the table began to share their answers to the question, “What is life?”
Of course, a question of this magnitude invited a wide variety of answers. My thirteen-year-old niece confidently expressed her thoughts that life was the physical, elaborating on her belief for ten minutes. Others speculated that life was sorrow and joy, love and family, or simply that life is now.
The last to respond was one of the elder family members, who at age 91, replied, “I really don’t really know. There isn’t just one answer.”
I found it quite meaningful that my young niece was quick to respond with such certainty, while the person with the most life experience couldn’t come up with a definitive answer. The take-home lesson? The greatest part of wisdom is knowing what we don’t know.
Acknowledging what we don’t know keeps us open, teachable and forever in awe of the mysteries of life. We become willing to embrace different answers and accept that we still don’t have them all. When this is the case, the possibilities are endless.
amen.