Today reluctantly I purchased another small heater for the sun room. I have given up on electrical oil radiant heaters as two have now failed over the last 4 or 5 years. So I turned to a small heater with a fan. However, it is going to take another sunny day before I can raise the heat to an acceptable level for growing and keep it there with a small heater. I hesitated to get another heater but for the plants to grow it was necessary.

Also today I discovered another way of turning the heat up, asking questions. In email and political talk I have been asking questions like “Is the War in Afghanistan a Just War?” after President Obama declared it one. I asked persons to give a yes or no answer to the question before giving their reasons or comments.

Most people ignored the question, but one that answered it got mad at me for asking for a yes or no answer before the comments. He had made a comment but, like other email comments, I’d rather not interpret it, so had asked for a yes or no besides the comments that were vague. I have developed a list of questions that seem to make people upset to answer. For example, I asked a Ph.d ethical theologian “Is it moral and ethical for a Catholic university to host departments of military sciences?” He never would answer the question.

One of the reasons for asking for a yes or no before comments is that in this day and age ethics and morals seem to be so vague and flexible. I’d rather have a person say yes to a question that I say no to than not answer it at all. For a true dialog and creative conflict we need to be clear where we stand.

Now all this is in the context of seeking truth. Stating what we believe firmly does not mean we cannot change or mind or feel hostile to the person who disagrees. One of the definitions of Gandhi’s Satyagraha or what we may call “creative nonviolence” is “striving nonviolently to the point of sacrifice rather than fighting to attain one’s vision of truth.” To that we can add Dorothy Day’s comment that we must act according to our conscience even though we may be misinformed.

So as the heat rises in the sun room I will keep asking questions. Although my answer to the questions is clear for now, I need to hear other answers. Maybe my clear answer will change, be less clear or reinforced. However, questions turning the heat up are necessary to grow.

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