Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

When The Only Thing We Need Is To Get Out of Our Own Way

Seek the questions. There is no right answer.

Jodi Barnes, PhD
5 min readApr 12, 2020

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James Thurber once said, “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”

I believe in this 14-word philosophy as much as I believe in the Golden Rule, gravity, and, as Ram Dass said, “We’re all just walking each other home.”

Yet I keep looking for answers. Eureka ones. The ones that will strike me down on my private Road to Damascus. The answers to these questions:

Why can’t I write the things I want to?

Why am I stuck and what am I stuck on, exactly?

Seeking answers — I’m particularly fond of asking why — is a hard habit to break. A habit that has always had legs in my neurotic pacings, but has grown arms during shelter-in-place. Today I noticed that a skull has begun to form.

The idea of finding the right answer is simple. To be instructed is alluring. A reflection of humans’ ostensible need to be led. To be comforted by direction and validation. You do it this way. Just say the Sinner’s Prayer. Seven Things You Need to Stop Doing Right Now (click here).

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Jodi Barnes, PhD

Writer and Collaborator-in-Chief of https://www.14wordsforlove.com where small acts of writing, art and conversation create multicultural connections for good.