Studying this teaching material since 1995 and transcribing the ideas you find on this website has been a work of dedication.
There is much said about why questions and not to use them because it is like a scorpion of a thousand tails. When you ask a why question and get an answer, the next question is “Why that?” So it’s endless.
But Dr. Bob told us that he never wanted to be an authority and to check out what he said.
So I thought I would do what might be called a deep dive and see how that would work in my daily life. The question I asked myself is could I survive with no why questions at all, and the answer came up “no.”
One of the things I discovered was that yes, there are some why questions are pertinent to the day, for example …
Why is my computer hanging up? If my spouse explains the correct process, I can then work more efficiently and independently. So that why question seems appropriate. So I’ve asked myself, when are why questions not appropriate? I’ve come up with the idea that there is much confusion and misinformation I when try to find out what people mean by the things they do or the statements they make such as “Why did you say that?” or “Why do I keep doing that when I know it’s harmful?” . We can spend hours, days, months and even years trying to figure out why someone, including self, said or did something. It is an endless loop where there is absolutely no answer in the many brain cells.
Now on to explanations…
Dr. Bob said explanations can actually obscure reasoning rather than clarify.
One should be plain spoken and easy to understand; however, he didn’t elaborate to any great degree. So, again, he left it for us to check out for ourselves instead of setting an edict to parrot and try to follow.
In the blind community there is much we must manage without sight. Thankfully technology has come up with audio descriptions and sometimes artificial intelligence can describe locations such as our surroundings on the street, obstacles in a room and much more. This can be very valuable information and can be used for us to function independently even though we are not sighted.
Sometimes a description of a process needs an explanation, but sometimes not. I have found that using too much of an explanation to seek understanding for something I am trying to do ends in a tangle of one sort or another – whether cooking, playing piano, writing a paper, or learning how the many devices and communication codes to relate to the sighted world.
But in frustration because there is so much to learn, I often panic and give scrambled explanations.
Ha, ha – maybe I just did that!
I find it a temptation to want to explain why I’ve done something, am doing something or going to do something – which falls on deaf ears.
One particular relative says, “Just tell me what you want; and then you can say anything you want.”
Further study harkens back to childhood when my father used to say “Why did you do that.” There’s the why question dealing with mentality or emotions which is unanswerable; but always demands an explanation. Now as an adult, I don’t really need to explain anything, and that goes hand-in-hand with another teaching idea that Dr. Bob gave us which is.
“There is nothing to defend.”
Sounds like another great study for observation!
Thanks for reading.