The Ultimate Answer

And it came to pass after seven and a half million years of relentless computing that Deep Thought, the second greatest computer in all of time and space, announced the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.


And the answer was ...

... was ...



Now that the ultimate answer was known, the people realized they did not know what the ultimate question was. And so Deep Thought designed another computer, greater than itself, to derive the ultimate question.



After ten million years, the question came:



Yes! It is the year of the Ultimate Answer for me! (Those who still don't get the joke can brush up on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy here.)

I had some fun with this at work Friday. I set out a plate of brownies with the above Hitchhiker's Guide clue and invited my co-workers to guess the "ultimate question." The winner got the prize brownie, inspired by Douglas Adams' 42 puzzle:



My wife asked me this morning why I'd advertise my age. I don't normally announce my birthday - it was just an excuse to have a little fun with the number 42, and besides, I'm really not ashamed of it.

The truth is, I don't feel 42. Not even close. I don't think 42. I'm more like 21, two times over. One of my co-workers says I'm more like ten and a half, four times over. I'll go with that.

Narcissistic literary references aside, I am glad to know that the real ultimate answer is not a number, but a person. That the Creator of this incredible universe loved a pitiful human creature and sent His own Son to open the gates of Heaven for me is no farce. He paid the admission fee that I couldn't afford, a spiritual death, then He went in ahead of me. Now the ultimate question is: Will I follow Him? And I have to answer it every day.

There's a deep thought worth anyone's time.