All We Need To Know

This is a time of week and a time of day in which we come together and give special attention to life’s one big question: The “Why?” of life itself.

A college newspaper once offered a prize to the person who submitted the best answer to life’s big question: “Why? … What’s it all about, anyway?” The entries came pouring in — hundreds more than anticipated. And, in general, the answers were laced with cynicism. Among them:

Life is a joke that isn’t funny.

Life is the jail sentence we get for the crime of being born.

Life is a disease for which there is only one cure: death.

Life is a “B-grade” movie. You don’t want to leave in the middle, but you don’t want to see it again.

There is a “Peanuts” comic strip in which two of Charlie Brown’s little friends engage in a serious discussion about life. One says to the other, “Life is peculiar. Wouldn’t you like to have your…