“Memory is sometimes understanding the when, where, who, and what but never the why.” -FEM
To understand these questions you need to pick an object, place, or person in time and give them a characteristic and name. Put another way, if you were given any topic in history to discuss, you would have to use the former four quoted questions to give animation and physicality to the story, to identify space and time and bring it to life. This is how we communicate about the world that surrounds us. But how about the world inside us that most people are too embarrassed to explain or hear about – feelings and opinion of yourself. Being introspective is not a weakness but is the quality of being real and forthcoming and it takes guts. We all view the world differently but we have the same emotions so reflection does not have to be awkward. It’s okay to discuss the ordinary and obvious, along with distinction, because the answers are eventually relatable no matter if simple or complex. Whether one is giving a long explanation of why correlating events in history affect current times, or a child is questioning everything and all you can say is “because,” the question “why” stands alone by itself. It does not call for a description and “why” can turn into a long drawn out answer when facts are involved. It is interesting to note, the question “why” seems to be wide open for opinion as well. There does come a point when a person needs to reflect on the question and just say “I don’t know.”
Francis Erich McElroy 