Questions

So I boarded a taxi to church on a beautiful Sunday morning, and I’ll meet this Mother and her two kids, a boy and a girl, seated beside me. And while the taxi sped past a broadcasting station her son would look out the window and ask his mum, “mummy what is that thing?”. Pointing to a mast he could see from a distance. After minutes of silence, I know that silence that whispers, “This boy wants to put me in trouble”. I had to come in and say, “It’s a mast, spelt M, A, S, T, Mast. It’s used in telecommunication”, taking a second look at him, I’ll see a look that betrays the fulfilment his soul has encountered. I’ll look at his mum and see relief in her eyes.

I was in the kitchen the other day with my baby sister, the very last of us all and she throws this question at me. ‘Soso what makes plants green?’. And I smiled, in shock at first because she had been a baby to me all this while, then I looked at who was talking and i realised that baby of yesterday has gotten to the age where Her curiosity has found words to properly articulate and communicate it’s question and doubts and bewilderments. As the sharp guy I am 😉 (thank God I paid attention in biology class) I gave her a brief run down on the green colouring pigment in plants, I told her its called Chlorophyll and I hope I’m right😂😂, Its use and probably all i knew about it, I later realised it was quite too big for her small head to carry but I’m glad she is asking questions. It’s a sign her mind Is growing, that she isn’t taking her assumptions for answers. But on another hand I’m scared.

I don’t know all there is to parenting, in fact all the experience i have is from babysitting my baby sisters but this I know; we shouldn’t stop children from asking questions. Every question answered makes them feel their questions are valid, It puts their minds to work, It makes them know that they’re worth hearing out, It validates them. Their self esteem is built.

I’m writing this on the backdrop of an African society that has always advocated the silence of younger generations because of their supposed Ignorance, or should I say naivety, Not knowing that, If there is any truth in that assumption, then it follows that we got to this level of ignorance when the questions young minds asked were invalidated, when minds that asked questions were told to stop asking ‘Stupid’ questions. I now know no question is stupid, If you see it as an opportunity to see things from the ‘asker’s’ point of view.

To the youth, I’ll quote the Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy, “Let no man despise your youth”. In The story of Job, the episode just before his bad ordeal would end, where his friends come over to talk with him we’ll see how the youngest mind can be the brightest in the room. Young minds have the advantage of not experiencing the history that can mar our view of the future.

I’ll conclude with saying, Live and let live, Ask questions and let others ask, Answer questions and when you’re not sure of the answer let others answer those questions. Solutions aren’t always new ways of thinking, some are just old thinking with a new perspectives.