Be More Columbo

Back in November I wrote a post about learning and how this is an integral part of living the good life. At the time I had started learning Italian, reading books about writing and trying out new recipes. Now with my two major writing projects underway, these other projects have fallen by the wayside. An outing with children caused me to re-think my priorities with learning.

I was out with a friend and her children earlier in the week. She is home-schooling them and so each activity is turned into an adventure for learning. A walk to and from the park was filled with questions and imaginings; we discovered the place where the fox met the mouse (in the Gruffalo), we compared what streets are like in two different countries, searched for mushrooms, named wildflowers and helped a spy baby (a doll) make contact with her spy boss. The experience made me think how natural my friend is at drawing out the curiosity and creativity of her children.

As adults we question far less. Some would say this is the result of parents and teachers telling us to stop asking so many questions. Richard Saul Wurman (the original creator of TED conference) says ‘In school we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question.’ There might be other reasons that people stop questioning; laziness, fear of looking weak and ignorant and the desire to succeed overwhelming our desire to finish well. As I write, I am aware that I have succumbed to all three.

Philosophers are those who do not tire of asking questions; ‘Philosophy may be defined as the art of asking the right question…’ Heschel. It was Socrates, the father of Western Philosophy, who believed that questions were both the beginning and the end of all learning. He taught others, his most famous pupil being Plato, through the art of questioning. These were not just any questions but those that would pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes. This has become known as Socratic questioning and has been adopted in education and psychology as a tool for gaining insight into the world and ourselves. 

When we stop asking questions one of the consequences is that we fill the gaps of knowledge with assumptions. We make assumptions about the world, but worse than that, we make assumptions about people. Strangers become little more than stereotypes and we diminish our nearest and dearest by not using our words to unravel more of who they are. Instead we begin to create them in our own image.

If successful businesses are those that rely on questioning innovators then perhaps good lives are those spent being questioning listeners? Those who dare to ask the difficult questions because they recognise this is the path to greater truth and awareness. I don’t like asking questions of others, I fear putting them on the spot. I think that if you want to tell me, you will. Maybe that’s true, but maybe I miss out on discovering more of who you are because I have made a choice for you. I have decided that there are parts of your life that you want to remain hidden rather than simply asking you the question. It is a challenge to consider whether I’m prepared to risk having my curiosity rejected or pursue a deeper truth about you.

My favourite TV detective Columbo was forever asking questions, from the seemingly irrelevant to the downright indelicate. Perhaps it is time we also resolved to ask just ‘one more thing.’

Look a little deeper

The other day I was looking through our bedroom window – this is not a natural place from which to observe as it is directly above the bed and it is only from the bed that you get a good view. It looks out onto our drive and the street. But if you look up and beyond our street there is a flag and beyond that are clouds of green from distant trees. We have lived here for over four years and I don’t think I have ever seen that flag or the trees in the distance before. It got me thinking about what else I miss because I am quick to look but don’t take time to observe.

Aristotle applauded the skill of observation. For him, what we can see, hear, taste, feel & smell are the concrete signs of truth around us. Plato’s view that our changing world could not be trusted because everything is in a state of flux did not make sense to Aristotle. Aristotle believed that it made more sense to trust in what could be observed rather than some imagined ideal state existing beyond our world. I’m not sure I fully agree with either of them but I am learning the benefit of greater observation. It is not just my sight that has been affected. I have changed my eating habits so that for a longer period of time I am fasting in the day. When I break my fast for the day, the experience of taste is heightened. Initially I wanted to wolf down anything and everything and I would waste time thinking about what food I was going to have. I am neither rushing nor being particularly mindful and slow when it comes to eating, but I am aware that there is a greater sense of enjoyment in those first bites. There is a greater sense of appreciation in the variety of food that I could eat. I no longer feel constrained by meals that are typical breakfasts or lunches and there is something very freeing in that.

The old adage ‘seeing is believing’ has been found wanting, but seeing, really looking, takes us closer to understanding which questions need asking. This is true in science. Observation leads to hypothesis leads to asking the right questions and experimenting to discover the answers. I wonder what questions and answers I have missed because I failed to really look. People are communicating with us all the time, sometimes it’s with their words but most of the time they are relying on us to look, to really see what needs asking rather than relying on the trite clichéd questions that often fall out of our mouths.

During the Easter weekend I spent some time flicking through the Guardian’s magazine series ‘Do Something’. One of the activities that jumped out at me was street photography. I thought that this would be a great way to put my desire for greater observation into focus! I decided that I would take photos of the same part of our high street at regular intervals in the day and observe the changes that occurred.

It was daunting holding up a camera to capture people in my chosen scene. No one asked what I was doing, and as the day progressed I felt more confident in my role as photographer, capturing moments, looking for the details.

We all have the ability to make discoveries through observation. They might not be world-changing scientific ones, but they might be ones that change our world and the people around us. Taking notice has increased my sense of wonder and appreciation.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies

The Benefit of the Doubt

 

Doubt generally conjures up negative connotations. We link it with mistrust and feel offended if the doubt is directed at us. In the arena of faith, doubt is often seen as its direct opposite, yet many who express deep faith profess to have doubts and find comfort and even impetus through them.

‘Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.’ (Paul Tillich)

‘If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.’ (Rene Descartes)

Descartes, who is probably more famous for his ‘I think, therefore I am’ quotation than the one cited above was the Father of Cartesian philosophy – the idea that all existence should be questioned in order to be understood. Whilst we could get caught up in a mind bending exercise to argue that this is not some dream existence (although perhaps after Trump’s inauguration yesterday, some people wish it was), I am happy for now (especially as I write) to assume both your existence and my own.

Asserting doubts is the beginning of self-autonomy. As toddlers our common refrain would have been ‘why?’ I remember the common response being ‘because I said so!’ This response is the reassertion of dominance. For some level the toddler is questioning the knowledge and authority of the parent. Whilst dealing with this can be frustrating it is a necessary path to curiosity and independent thought.

In a world of post-truth perhaps doubt and questioning are our greatest allies. The educational system in this country is being blamed for not nurturing critical thinkers and independent learners but surely this is something we could all do with developing further. Tweets and posts have become ‘gospel truth’ that we either choose to believe or ignore. Perhaps we need to give less credit and time to gossip columnists and social commentators and instead give more attention to those who are prepared to question the status quo.

During this last week I went to see Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’. I was really impressed by Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of a Jesuit priest. I then discovered that in preparation for the film he completed the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. In a recent interview he was asked about faith and whether he had doubts about God and the after-life.

‘…And I think a life of faith is not a life of certainty. A life of faith is a life of – of doubt. And I think it is so healthy to doubt. It’s so health to doubt oneself, it’s so healthy to doubt any assumption we make about how to live. And I think – what I say when – what I mean when I say certainty scares me, certainty starts war. Certainty starts war on behalf of ideology. Certainty of the ‘I – I know and you don't.’ That's the scariest thing to me and what – what a human being is capable of doing.’

Andrew Garfield Interview

This is the kind of doubt I think we could all do with considering. Doubt that questions my assumptions. Doubt that allows for your view as much as mine. 

What do you think? 

What are the benefits of doubts? 

Would critical thinking benefit teenagers, our society?