Everyone is curious about something, even if they don’t know how to formulate a question about it. Everyone would like to understand themselves better, even if they haven’t been taught how to be introspective. Everyone wants less conflict in the world, even if they don’t know how to go about making that dream a reality.

When we don’t ask questions or when we just accept what we're told is true, we are at the mercy of someone else’s opinions and the facts they use to support those opinions. Yet at the center of most of the world’s conflicts, in which we are embroiled whether we want to be or not, are firmly held beliefs that don’t take into account, or recognize, the value of other points of views.

When we are able to push ourselves beyond what we assume we know and what others tell us is true, and when we explore whether or not the opinions of others make sense to us, we can see the world with new eyes.

The willingness to question our most cherished assumptions is the first step in finding a new perspective on the conflicts and extremism that divide us today. Just as a pebble thrown into a pond creates ripples that spread out in wider and wider circles, people who ask interesting, fun, and challenging questions of themselves, and of others, can form the nucleus of an energy that can turn the world around.

The more we are willing to go beyond easy answers, the more likely it is that we will find common ground with others. Also, knowing that others are asking the same questions we are asking, even though they may arrive at a different conclusion, connects us all in a new way.

The Q-and-A Club encourages everyone to ask questions that expand his or her understanding of the world and of himself or herself.