Stupid Questions?

 (Private message:  Get well, Libby!  Hope you are feeling better every day!)

As you might guess, I have too much time on my hands, but not enough.  It doesn't take much effort to exhaust myself, physically, but my brain is always going full tilt.  With a plethora of things to do that actually need my attention, yet not much ability to get them done, I spend an inordinate amount of time pondering life and the universe...on the Internet.  It's both a blessing and a curse.  Because of this, I know that there are more questions than there are answers, because every answer causes more questions.

I saw a humorous meme on Facebook yesterday about a parent whose young son asked a question that was "so unanswerable that it threatened to tear a hole in the fabric of the space/time continuum:  'Why isn't there any mouse-flavored cat food?' "   How childlike and innocent!  No one would call that a stupid question.  Inquisitive and curious, yes.  Stupid, no.  

I could remember questions like that from my own childhood.  I wondered why, if I jumped into the air on a moving bus or train, I would come down in the same place.  The vehicle didn't move forward and leave me smashed a few feet farther back.  Or why, on a hot day in the car, the road ahead always looked wet, but when we got there, it wasn't wet at all.  Or why God would let bad things happen.  The questions are always acceptable when we are young.  It's when we are adults that they appear "stupid" because, we assume that adults should already know that from their years as questioning toddlers.  

When I was teaching high school juniors and seniors--almost adults--I had one young woman come to me in private to ask if someone could get oral herpes from giving oral sex to someone with genital herpes.  (Quite a change from questions like, "Why is the sky blue?")  I'd already told my students that there are no stupid questions as long as they are sincere.  I spent part of my free period looking up the answer she sought...wrote down the answer in a note, put it in a sealed envelope, and delivered it to her later that day.  (The answer, in case you are curious, is yes.)  We never spoke of it again.  I was flattered that she felt comfortable enough to ask ME the question.  I mean, there aren't that many teenagers that could easily ask that question of a parent.)  

Truth be known, I have many questions that I'd like to ask people--many of which would sound out of bounds if they weren't sincere:                                                                                                                     1.  Why are Black women so sensitive about their hair?                                                                               2.  Do criminals actually think ahead when they commit crimes?  Do they think about consequences, and are the consequences worth what they get from the crime?                                                                3. When society lowers the bar on acceptable behavior and language, what's left?                                    4.  What to do with the questions for which there are only arguable answers?  Abortion has been debated my whole life, as has capital punishment.  Peace in the Middle East has never been established in my lifetime.  Gun control, climate change, minimum wage...and now pandemic vaccinations/masks?  5.  No stupid questions.  Sometimes stupid answers.  

My stupid question for today is why does my house blow lightbulbs faster than what the bulbs say their life is?  Inquiring minds want to know!  (I probably wouldn't understand the answers, so don't bother to tell me.  I just want things to work!)