Why?

It’s only a three-letter question, but answers to the word would take paragraphs.

So, I’ll just ask the question and perhaps you can imagine the answers.

Why do some new car commercials show their vehicles driving through water falls, mountain climbs, beach surfs and desert sands when anyone who buys them will be driving on the turnpike and get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Main Streets in Anytown, USA. Land Rover shows their Defender SUV driving across the furthest corner of Morocco where “no other cars can go” and also through a waterslide in Iceland. Well, what good does that do for somebody who has to navigate his Defender through the busy town of Jim Thorpe just to find a legal parking place?

I’m going to buy me one of those Defender SUVs and drive it through the sandy beach at Mauch Chunk Lake and then climb the highest peak on Bear Mountain. After that, I’ll drive the beast to the Jim Thorpe Market on senior discount Tuesdays.

Why do some people feel a need to talk on their cellphones while checking out at a store register? The other day, a woman holding the hand of a small child was on her phone and talking loud enough so everyone in line could hear her conversation. She had no free hands. She squeezed the phone between her ear and the side of her head, kept her hand clasped to the hand of the child and fumbled with her pocketbook with her other hand until she finally found her wallet. The young man at the register stood behind the counter patiently. The woman fussed with her credit card, slotting it in and out of the black box three or four times before her payment went through. And all this time, she kept talking loudly on her cellphone.

Why couldn’t she have said, “Let me call you back. I’m checking out at the store”? Everyone in the line heard that a woman named Sheila was sick for three days with intestinal issues. Standing three deep in the checkout line, I turned around to a guy behind me and said, “Well, aren’t we both glad that Sheila’s feeling better now?” He replied. “She’s fine, but her sister is sick now. I heard that conversation on that woman’s speaker phone in the produce aisle.”

Why don’t cable TV and internet companies charge us by usage? The electric and water companies charge by how much of those utilities we use each month, but you can have your TV turned off for a month and you still have to pay for a service you are not using.

Some years ago, we had a bad storm that knocked out power for nearly four full days. Of course, the TV could not be used. I called not to complain but to ask if there would be an allowance on the bill for no service. Well, you know the answer.

To get your money’s worth for all the 200 channels that you will never watch, buy 200 TVs and put the 200 channels on all at once. On second thought, never mind. Your electric bill would be through the roof.

Speaking about going through the roof, why is the state of Pennsylvania the eighth highest in college tuition costs in the entire country? We have some great universities, no doubt, but the average cost at a private institution is $52,000 per year, and it goes well over $80,000 in some prestigious schools. Students who get scholarships can reduce the cost, but the bottom line is many are graduating with loans of six figure debt before they begin a career. College is a choice, not a requirement, but do we really want our young adults, who are trying to get gainful employment, to be paying off debt for 10 to 30 years and more?

The top schools also get millions and billions of dollars donated by alumni, and I wonder why more of that isn’t utilized to lower tuition bills, especially after there is no more room on campuses to build research centers with somebody’s name on it or upgrades to athletic facilities with money taken from an alumnus endowment. I’m thinking that I’d like to see an itemized tuition bill for one college student that might include the cost of toilet paper he or she is expected to use each semester.

The larger issue for me is, why do I get these questions stuck in my head when I won’t get answers? Which then brings me to another question: Is knowledge really power or is it an acquisition of frustration. The Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “The more you know the more you realize you don’t know.”

Here are some other quotes that leave me wondering about the word “why?”

Edgar Bergen said, “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance?”

Robin Williams asked, “Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?”

“Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?”

“Why is the third hand on a watch called the second hand?”

“Why is it necessary to lock down the lid of a coffin?”

“Why is the man who invests your money called a broker?”

“Why do doctors call what they do “practice?”

“Why do you need a driver’s license to buy liquor when you can’t drink and drive?”

“Why when you buy a pair of jeans, you only get one?”

Perhaps this should be the answer to the question.

Why?

Why not?

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com.