Member-only story
Why?
The power of a word that, despite its brevity, is verily a key to wisdom
Long ago, even before I was “age 12 to adult”, a friend of mine had a copy of the board game “Why”. Vaguely inspired by (and clearly seeking to capitalize on the popularity of) a TV show introduced by Alfred Hitchcock at the time, it taught me one of the very first English words (after “I”, “you”, and “Paperback writer”). Little did I know at the time, though, how important that little word really was.
My friend and I didn’t play the game very often, but I do remember that winning it required establishing “why” a murder was committed. I cannot profess to have any direct inside knowledge in what it takes to resolve a murder, but going by the numerous Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon novels I read in my formative years (not to mention the countless crime series on TV I have watched since), it does seem that discovering why the victim got killed is mostly instrumental in unlocking the mystery.
Small question, big scope
The question is not limited to murder inquiries, though. Anyone who has, or has ever had, access to small children will know that about one-third of everything they say starts with “why”. Sometimes the question does relate to someone’s motive or intent — “ Why are you spending so much time on Twitter…
