Lately, I keep hearing the phrase “uncertain times.” To find out the looming unknowns, I asked people in Evanston’s Centennial Park, “What is one question you wish you had the answer to?”
BILL BERGERSON: What is the future direction of really the whole world?
SUZIE MORTELL: When is Trump going to get out of office?
KATHY SLAUGHTER: What does it take to make people get along with each other?
IZZY STROOBANDT: What is one way to actually make people happier?
MARA OVERBEY: Am I making the right decision for my kids?
LYNN MORRIS: What will it take to make me happy and comfortable in retirement?
KARL VOGEL: Is there an afterlife?
DAVID DUNAND: Is the human race alone in the universe?
MICHELLE KEIM: Are we looking in the wrong place for other life forms?
ELLEN SLATER: Do animals speak different languages, or can they just all—even different types—just communicate to each other?
NADIA NOUI-MEHIDI: I’d look at a photograph of Queen Elizabeth I. Just, I want to see her actually. Not the portrait, I want to see her in the flesh. What does she look like?
For some, uncertainty doesn’t need to be met with answers.
JOHN STACHELSKI: I don’t know, I feel like anything that is really substantial, I don’t wanna know. If I were to spoil something that’s like an existential important question, then that would kind of ruin something about my experience of life. I think I’m supposed to not know.
Maybe we should make our peace with some unknowns. Until then, I’ll be wondering if my dog can talk to my tortoise.
For WNUR News, I’m Georgia Kerrigan.
