Leuna

I would like to ask what are those lights appearing as a town almost suddenly from the nothing in the window of the night train. Everywhere is dark but you can then see a galaxy of bright yellow lights. The first thought goes to San Francisco, or New York City, where the lights define the shape and the form of the buildings, the color of which merges with the one of the dark sky. But then you get nearer, you pass an empty bleak station with no roof, but some grass even where it would not be expected to be. And you see a name: Leuna.

One step, one breath, one movement of brush

I would like to ask why sometimes things seem to be bigger than ourselves, then our forces and energies. Sometimes they are somewhere outside, sometimes they just occupi the whole living room and they look so huge to us: thoughts, things to be done, things to be tidied, situations to consider, email keeping going through our head.
Other times, we just start trying to do one piece at a time, one step at a time. As in "Momo" by Michael Ende, the long big road will never be cleaned if you consider it in its completeness, but it will be cleaned if you just focus on every step, "a step, a breath, a movement of the brush; a step, a breath, a movement of the brush"...
And so, at the end, when you sit down after having reached your little goal, you find out that the living room is empty, or tided, and that your mind is happier, and more satisfied of having considered all available possibilities.
And it seems, things just solve by themselves. Your effort was much tinier than expected. And you could even go on, one step, one breath... 

Skills for everyone and own limits

I would like to ask why it is so difficult to accept that we are not good at doing something. I am sure that everyone has some qualities and skills, but I can also imagine that everyone is not able to do everything. Even if he wants to learn everything, he might just not be able to. It is maybe what most people call "untalented".

Moving boxes

I would like to ask what is the best strategy to pack your things if you are going to leave them to plow ocean waves for 8 weeks and you eventually hope to get them back in a not too moldy state. Actually, maybe the first question would be what are the things that fit in the bag you will carry with you, and which ones are all the other ones. No matter which criteria I applied for finding an answer, I always got something completely useless: either you think about all the stuff you could not have and you would still exist - and then you think, why do I have all this crap? and it does not really help. Or, you try to "save" your favorite clothes and the important documents and precious belonging, for then finding out they will never fit in your bag.

Buying a house

I would like to ask what are the reasons which motivate someone to buy a house. Of course, I am considering someone who has the possibility to do it, either using some saved money or agreeing a mortgage.

Online university classes

I would like to ask what are the goals of online university classes. I have just helped a friend to prepare for the paper she has to submit this week. The topic regards the comparison between two different table which have to be prepared by the student using two different softwares. After we spent some time understanding how the table should look like and which data we can use, we realized that we only had one of the required softwares available and no idea of how to get the other for free. We checked the book, the website, the class description and nowhere was to be found a link or a hint of how to get the necessary software.

More-Than-More-Than-Moore

I would like to ask whether it is getting more common in scientific conferences about electronics and semiconductor not only to consider Moore's law, not only to say that we are in the More-Than-Moore time, but also to think whether it is rather a "Nothing-More" time.

Café with packaged cakes

I would like to ask why more and more often there are public places which sells coffee and cakes, but the cakes are not freshly baked, but just taken out from the freezer and warmed up. Not only: you could buy the same cake at the supermarket - paying of course less than half the price.

Assumptions and discussions

I would like to ask why is it so difficult to discuss a plan or an idea instead of just assuming it good and accepted by everyone. Just imagine that it is dinner time and your mum or your partner tells you, "Today you have to eat noodle", or instead, "Today evening we will eat noodle because i have to finish the tomato sauce in the fridge and noodle is good for you and we don't eat it since a while". Which one is easier to accept, in particular if you don't like noodle so much and were already planning to get fish and chips at your favorite store?

Not that young parents

I would like to ask what is the role of the kids towards their own parents when the kids are adults and the parents get old. Let speak about parents and kids who love each other, share opinions and events, and are there for the other when needed.

Ironing

I would like to ask why do clothes need to be ironed. Ok, not all of them. But let's take a nice cotton shirt or blouse. That is the typical example of something that if not ironed "looks bad". I would like to meet the person who invented all this and exchange a couple of words and get some explanation. I really do not understand why the shirt has to be ironed. Once it is clean, and it matches the pants, and it is decent, without holes or strange stuff, what is the problem?

Non self-evident

I would like to ask why we have to get sick to understand how health is not a natural condition. Only then we realize how lucky we have been until then, or how important it is. I wonder why we can not appreciate what we have all the time, and not only when we do not have it anymore. Sometimes, we even challenge our bodies, or we look at danger with disregard. 

Worrying

I would like to ask why sometimes people get worried before even it makes any sense. They get worried about what would happen if, but the "if" did not happen yet, nor is foreseen to happen, and, what's worse, they could not change anything in case the "if" would become true. It is just one of many occasions of our impotence in influencing many things. Therefore, it makes even less sense to just get worried: can you avoid it? do it; can you not avoid it? be prepared in the best way, but do not worry.
When people worry, they begin to kind of panic and lose any type of objectivity on the situation. It is like if someone would keep telling you "I can't swim, I can't swim, I will draw" sitting on a bench in a park along a little water hole, where nobody would ever think about taking a bath, nor the person speaking would ever think about taking one, but is getting worried about the fact that she will draw "if" she would take a bath.

Music

I would like to ask what would be the world without music. It is something so ephemeral and impalpable, but still with the power of changing our way of feeling or let us be less alone. You can sing with it, you can just enjoy it laying lazy on the sofa, or you can use it as a background for a lot of activities. And there are so many different types, it can be so different, from the African traditional drums to electronic music, from Wiener Waltz to bands.

Misunderstandings

I would like to ask why it is so easy to misunderstand others. We sometimes explain it with different background, different culture, maybe a different knowledge of the language is used. But most times, it is just the different personal meaning that everyone gives to the same word. Not even maybe the intrinsic meaning, that is, what the word actually mean. I think that the danger is more in what the word refers about, or in all the words which are missed that can completely change the meaning of a sentence, if added to it.

Time for travelling?

I would like to ask what would you do if you could choose when to start your new job - on January 1st, or on April 1st - and your actual contract finishes on December 31st.

Helping when nothing changes

I would like to ask what is the best way to help someone. If he tells you, what is his problem, and you listen, and you try to give your opinion and suggest what he should do, and then, things are too complicate, nothing changes. The situation does not change, the people do not change, the life does not change.

"I am right"

I would like to ask why some people do not understand how much they hurt others, only because they believe to know what is right and they do not listen what other people think, wish, believe. I am not talking about religion. I am talking about the behavior of people who believe to know that they are always perfect, and to know what is best for others. So that they just impose it to others, and get angry or disappointed when others do not want to do it and suggest unlistened alternatives. It is when dialogue does not exist and the complexity of life is misregarded. It is when people always know what is right, black or white, and do not see all the different tones of grey, if not the rainbow of colors which characterize life.

To appreciate and to like

I would like to ask what would you think if someone brings you a cake from his own tradition, with a very elegant decoration on top, a certificate of the genuinity of the recipe and of the ingredients, and an exquisitely decorated box.

Doctors

I would like to ask why people are afraid of doctors. In the end, they just try to make us feel better or to solve a problem. Maybe, the idea of a doctor is associated with pain for some invasive analysis, or illness, or feeling bad, together with long waiting times in non optimal conditions. I think that most of the time we are afraid of the fact that they tell us to do something, or to take some medicaments, and we mostly have no idea of how these magic pills should let us feel better or the exercise should help our physical conditions. It basically then implies a blind trust in their knowledge, understanding and capability to offer the right solution to our problem. I can imagine that nobody likes to give such blind trust to, more or less, strangers.