up:: Trust the process (kit) tags::#source/speech
The Riddle IS the Answer (kit)
What’s up with public restrooms having all those scribbles on the walls?
- Tina loves Joey.”
- “For a good time call this number.”
I mean, who does that? Well, one time I did.
But first, some back story…I was 18 and was back from my first semester in college. It was the holiday season. Christmas Eve actually. And my dad said we could open presents a day early if we solved his riddle. So he gave us one of the best and hardest riddle of all time. A riddle for the ages. (If we have time, I’ll share it with you at the end.)
I chewed on the riddle trying to solve it. I wrestled with it. It was frustrating, and yet surprisingly, kinda fun.
Then my brother emerged from the computer room and he blurted out the answer (this pre-dates everyone having cell phones). So with the riddle solved we were able to open presents.
You’d think I would have been happy to open presents; but I wasn’t. I was disappointed because I was robbed of a wonderful riddle.
My dad wouldn’t live much longer, so moments like these weighed heavy on me. I wanted the riddle to live on, so two weeks later I was back in the college dorms, writing the whole thing out on the wall of the bathroom stall. (And pleading with them not to go online to find the answer.)
Everyone soon found out about the riddle and word reached them that I wrote it. Then something amazing happened. For weeks, the whole floor in the dormitory would stop me and ask if they had the right answer. They didn’t fast-forward, the didn’t cheat the riddle—and it was a lot of fun.
Because that’s the thing about life that we keep forgetting. We are addicted to the answer. Even now, some of you are getting antsy because you are conditioned (and entitled) to be drip-fed the answers.
But it’s not the answer that matters. It’s the riddle.
The riddle IS the answer.
It’s a means unto itself, full of its own joy and fulfillment.
- Back Matter
- dates:: 2014-01-01
- created:: 2014-01-01
- modified:: 2022-03-15