Questions, Silly or Serious?

Ask anything. Get a true answer. That would be my desire, but sometimes the answer comes only with work and, let's face it, I'm a true American, I like things to come easily. The academic workaholics don't like people like me. They want no silly questions and won't give casual answers. Well,  I have serious questions too, but this morning I asked a silly one I'd never thought of before, and I'll bet you haven't either.   Do ants smile?

What brought that on? This: I was sitting at a curbside table in a small cafe and noticing how the patrons and waiters wove in and out amidst the tables, meeting others doing the same and smiling at each other. Strangers to one another, mostly, but nevertheless willing to give out smiles as if they were recklessly throwing diamonds to each other. (To me, smiles are pricier than diamonds.) Then a young mother with her little girl baby slung onto her hip passed by on the sidewalk. I couldn't help smiling. No one could. Pure enchantment they were. The mother didn't notice me but the baby did and she gave me the broadest and sweetest smile imaginable!

That's when I thought of the silly question. Ants move easily and quickly with apparent purpose in mind just as humans do. They pass each other rapidly, meet and sometimes greet, but do they smile as they go about their ways? I suspect there may be someone who has figured that out through long study and persistent observation. I could go to the library and research it or make it my own project, but I'm not that desperate for an answer.

My questions tend to be either too silly to warrant time to seek answers or so serious they are beyond reach and only speculation is possible. Like this one: Who triggered the Big Bang? The stuff of the universe, did it come from nothing? Can something come out of nothing? Is that either physically or mentally possible? And does every something become nothing at some time?

I know it's a waste of time to dwell long on questions either too silly or too serious. I've got to get to more basic ones like, What do you intend to do with the rest of your life? Are you content with the same old-same old, or do you want to do something more worthwhile than blogging or keeping a-float on the sea of information available or pursuing some senior activity agenda?

I know what I should do. I should read the manual of my new home phone and find out how to set up the answering device it's supposed to have in it. My instinct is to stay ignorant and let anyone anxious to get me call my cell phone or call again on the home phone. At any rate, that's something I can put off. What I will do is clean up the kitchen from the lunch I prepared and ate because I don't like the sight of it. I'll pay a few bills because the consequences of not doing so are unappealing. I'll listen to the evening news broadcast and try to make sense of that. And I'll settle down for the evening with a good book. Better things may yet be in the works but at my age I'm not looking too hard.

Ambition is not my middle name, but I love to ask questions. Both silly ones and serious. Sometimes I do get answers. But even if I don't, speculation is fun and who knows, I may speculate well enough to write a book of science fiction. Don't count on it though. I'll be asking questions till the cows come home.