Folk #1: Asking questions. Looking for answers. Trying to figure things out. Trying to solve the Riddles, large & small, of Existence. It's a life-long quest. I have spent so much of my time on the planet occupied with this Don Quixote-like quest. Questioning everything. Battling windmills, battling the wind. What engages me? Whatever engages me. Pretty much anything. Still, fairly quickly, I have learned there are hard limits to knowledge, the searching is endless, and any sense of "understanding," is often fruitless. I find myself lost in a cul de sac, or in a hall of mirrors; a confounding zone where the questions multiply, they bounce around, they collide with each other; bits & bites of knowledge slowly accumulate, but solid & clear answers refuse to offer themselves up. Life; it's complicated. Seems that the more you look, the more see, often, the less you know, there is the uncertainty principle, the more you explore a subject, any subject, the murkier things get when you delve deep enough into the dark nougat center. You end up with lots of knowledge, data, facts, kernels of truth, often contadictory, partial, arbitary. Understanding is a fleeting chimera, an always vanishing unicorn. Of course, silly me, I am not the greatest questioner. My limits are oh so obvious. Even, & especially, to me. Being fully Human demands a disciplined self-awareness & a hard-won humility. Mystery is everywhere. Yes. We are bound by Mystery. Or maybe bound & gagged by Mystery. I suppose that's ok, or, you know, it has to be ok, one learns to live with the limits of knowledge, the limits of understanding, the limits of reason, and the all-pervading reality of a nebulous Mystery at the heart of everything. Making sense of not making sense. There is a vast Cloud of Unknowing looming over us all. When you are at your wit's end, grasping, grappling, fumbling for answers, an all-purpose, very handy response comes to mind. Take a question, any question, one that starts with a simple, "Why...?" Ha. Aye. Right? Tricky. The Belfast Cowboy might say: "There is no why, it just is..." There's the rub. You may come up with million plausible-sounding reasons for certain phenomena. You do you best trying to be reasonable. Still, the cold, hard, funny & obvious response would be, could be, & often is: "Who knows? I mean, you know, shit happens."