The older man told me “Stop asking such pointless questions and ask what you really mean. In Zen Buddhism we mediate until we reach the centers of ourselves, the very bottom, at which point we realize we are a part of everything. So for the next question you ask, ask one that reaches the bottom and spreads all the way out touching everything.” We sat there for almost an hour in silence then. He sipped his tea and waited patiently. I racked my brain trying to think of what I wanted, what I needed to ask. Finally, without even consciously deciding to, I asked “Why?” He placed his cup on its tray and smiled. “Now that’s the question. And I don’t know.” That answer freed me and restored my hope.