Nobody Knows Everything

Douglas Adams wrote, “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space” (Hitchhikers Guide). The accuracy of this quote can make one feel very inconsequential in a world we have always perceived to be much larger than it actually is. There are over six billion people on earth and an infinite (or close to) number of combinations of people and places.

The Toronto subway, like New York’s, is an unpredictable, busy place. Having had the opportunity to take the subway home everyday after school for four years, I have consequently had the pleasure of witnessing some bizarre situations. Whether it is a shameless public display of affection, a talkative senior or someone a little eccentric, subway riders are always meant to feel uncomfortable or perhaps even a bit entertained by the strange characters aboard. None of these common subway incidents quite measure up to the incident I witnessed just recently.

It was during off-peak hours and I had the chance to sit down (something a teenager like me rarely gets the opportunity to do). The man across from me was reading the Metro and I, out of boredom, was attempting to read the celebrity gossip column which weaved in between his completed crossword and Sudoku puzzles. I quickly gave up my attempt to read the fine text from across the subway only to realize I was not the only one interested in this mans newspaper. There was another man with his Metro open a few seats down from myself. He was a peculiar looking man with outdated clothes and untamed hair. Judging by the expression on his face, he was having a hard time filling out his own crossword puzzle. This man saw the completed puzzle across from me, stood up and walked directly towards the man with the answers, knelt down and shamelessly began doubling the answers onto his own crossword.

I am positive that the first man was slightly uncomfortable pretending not to notice his admirer; everyone else on the subway must have been forcing their laughs down into their guts. I learned something very significant from this stranger; he was not copying the answers for an assignment, he wasn’t cheating for a test; this man was using his resources to solve a problem.
In life people gain knowledge from experience or exposure. The possibility that two people experience and are exposed to the exact same things in life is highly improbable, thus leading me to the conclusion that one person can not have all the answers. Crossword puzzles, unlike Sudoku puzzles, are based on knowledge; instead of being given nine options to choose from (where extensive trial and error can result in the correct solution), the accurate answer may not be available to the participant.

Using each others experiences as a resource to gain knowledge is something humanity has done over thousands of years. From Elders, to books and now to crossword puzzles, information is gathered not from plagiarizing ideas but from collecting factual information from others.
This man was using another person’s knowledge to fill in his own blanks or perhaps he just needed help gaining momentum to answer his own questions. Regardless, he taught me that although we may not have the answer, someone out there does, all we need to do is find them.