Answering when there isn’t an Answer
Some questions just can’t be answered. Not because you can’t reveal information or because all the facts aren’t in, but because there just isn’t an answer.
Life is full of questions that can’t be answered. How big is the universe? How high is up? Why do bad things happen to good people? These questions exist, and people aren’t happy about them. I believe that most people think of questions as if they were mystery novels. Some are so easy that you know who did it right from the beginning of the book. Others are more complex and take a while to figure out. Good mystery novels, like good questions, challenge you to think, and when you do, there’s great satisfaction. Then there’s the complex mystery you’ve read with great attention. You’ve struggled with red herrings and thought you had it solved several times only to realize you were wrong. You approach the end of the book defeated but happy that the ending will explain it all. You turn to the final chapter and realize that someone has torn the last two pages out of the book. There is no answer to the mystery.
Some questions can never be answered just as some mysteries will never be solved. People don’t like that fact, leaders don’t like it, and I don’t like it. But it is the truth. So when you’re faced with a question that can’t be answered, do the only thing possible–tell the truth.