Are You More Like Koko or Like Socrates?

In my last post in the FATC FORUM (An Equation to Ponder…S=PxR), I mentioned reading Arthur C. Brooks latest book, THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE —Finding Purpose In An Age of Emptiness, which I highly recommend reading. In that book I also read about Koko, a Western lowland gorilla famous for learning American Sign Language. Under the care of researcher Penny Patterson, Koko learned over 1,000 signs and understood about 2,000 spoken English words.

Here’s an excerpt from THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE —Finding Purpose In An Age of Emptiness:

The reason Koko so captured the imaginations of people all over the world was not that she was actually writing poetry or composing speeches, but rather that her development of an expansive vocabulary in a human-devised language seemed to blur the line between Homo sapiens and nonhuman primates. Indeed, those associated with Koko took great pains to emphasize Koko’s quasi-human qualities. Koko was capable of understanding her environment and expressing her wants to her human caretakers. But there was one thing Koko never did with language, even once. Most people never noticed it.

Koko never asked a single question.

This gets overlooked because asking questions seems so basic; it is such an ordinary, everyday part of life. But no trained ape, nor any other nonhuman animal, has ever done this. What sets Homo sapiens apart from other living beings—and, I believe, gives us a spark of the divine—is not the ability to give answers to increasingly complicated problems. That’s amazing and requires a lot of brainpower. But it is the willingness and capacity to wonder and inquire about things large and small that are the essence our uniquely human consciousness.

This is what Socrates meant when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, a life that is not deeply questioned is bereft of meaning. The deeper the question without easy answers—or any answers at all—the better. Living a life unquestioned is to live a life like Koko—meeting immediate needs, but without a trace of the mystery of what lies behind it all. And not surprisingly, therefore, this is the first habit of people with meaningful lives: they ask a lot of questions.

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I personally believe I have found meaning in my life. However, just like the chicken and egg question, I don’t know which came first—my finding my meaning in life or my desire to be better at asking questions.

I do know—I don’t want to be like Koko the gorilla, or like Pavlov’s dog or like the unconscious, bluepill, compliant humans depicted in the movie The Matrix. And I do know—I want to continue to live a meaningful life—and part of my meaningful life includes helping my family and others find meaning and significance in their lives.

Socrates apparently asked one too many questions because he was executed in about 400BC. He was forced to drink hemlock after being convicted of not worshipping the state gods and corrupting the youth. His quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” and others were first passed along by his student Plato and are still being cited today. In fact, the Socratic method of questioning remains a staple of American legal education.

Socrates believed that the highest human pursuit was questioning beliefs and seeking knowledge. An “unexamined” life is one lived on autopilot or without self-awareness, which he deemed shallow.

The most compelling reason I have to improve my question-asking skills is because it was one of the hallmarks of my Hero and Savior. Jesus Christ often used questioning as a powerful technique to encourage introspection rather than providing direct answers.

Thinking apparently has never been a well practiced activity. I’m reminded of Thomas Edison’s famous quote regarding thinking: “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”

Jesus is recorded as asking over 300 questions in the Gospels. This is amazing to me to consider that the man who literally had all the answers—asked so many questions. So I asked myself, why? It seems to me that this style had a very real purpose. I think the questions were used to challenge, teach, and force listeners to think deeply about their beliefs, motives, and hearts.

When Jesus walked the earth and still today many people, including many religious leaders, didn’t seek to know the meaning behind God’s Word (The Scriptures). For a multitude of reasons they chose to become legalistic or merely succumbing to popular thought, tradition and ritual.

Probably then, and still today, some people go only on what they thought they heard or learned when they were 8-years old. Yet when their brains became fully formed, they didn’t choose to investigate their religious beliefs with adult brains. If you’ve read any of the four Gospels, wouldn’t you agree that Jesus was regularly challenging the religious traditions, and legalistic practices of his time, particularly those enforced by the Pharisees and the scribes?

Has it ever occurred to you that God wants us digging and asking questions about Him? If God wants a true relationship with us, isn’t asking questions how people grow in their relationships? Isn’t it true that one way we show we care is by asking questions? 

Aren’t you tired of people telling you what you think or who you are because of the way you look, your age, the clothes you wear, the people you hang out with or where you go to church? Aren’t you tired of other people only concerning themselves with optics rather than seeking to know your real heart and your real thoughts? Do you do the same thing with God? How do you seek understanding in any relationship without asking questions?

Do you think it could be that Jesus’/God’s questions were actually timeless and are still important to ponder and to answer in our quest for true meaning? Do you think that maybe the question that God asked Adam, after Adam first sinned, is possibly relevant for each of us today? In Genesis 3:8 it says, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”

Do you think maybe God is still asking each of us that same question, “Where are you?” Do you think God is looking for GPS coordinates—or might He be inquiring as to our relationship with Him?

And do you think in Matthew 16:15 Jesus was only talking to Peter, when He asked Peter, “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Do you think maybe how we answer those two questions may chart the rest of our lives here on earth, as well in the afterlife?

Like the famous Dr. Seuss one said, “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” What do you think? Are you even asking the right questions?

By the way, Jesus would often start his questions with this phrase, “Have you not read…?” Here are a few examples from Matthew alone: Matthew 12:3, 12:5, 19:4, 21:16, 21:42, and 22:31. Do you think Jesus meant on social media, or the Wall Street Journal, or do you think He meant in The Scriptures (ie: The Bible)?

Hey, I’m not trying to be the 800-lb gorilla in the room. Don’t get mad at me. I’m just asking a few questions of you that I’ve already asked myself—so please don’t put hemlock in my next beer (or Manhattan). Don’t blame me if thinking is sometimes uncomfortable—precisely because as Dr. Seuss remarked, Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

By the way, have you found the meaning of your life? We’d love to hear that story! If not, keep looking by choosing to look in the most fishy-looking water. Remember Jason Randall’s 90/10 rule in trout fishing, which states that 90% of the fish are found in 10% of the water. And that 10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish. But even more basic than Jason’s truism is this: You can’t catch fish if you don’t go fishing. I think the same principles hold true for the quest for real meaning. Do you think truly examining your life and actively asking more questions might help? Remember our FATC motto: It’s not just about the fly fishing.

John Muckerman

FATC Inspirational and Leadership Lead