"I have something for you,"  the assistant HR lady said, she nearly always and now also smiling. I was on my way to the back, to my break. "Remember that trivia quiz you took?"

I remembered. It had been a few days earlier and I remembered vaguely promised prizes. It cannot be bad that she is smiling, her tone is warm, she is the one delivering the news, I thought. Maybe it's good. Maybe I won.

I nodded yes. She reached with her right hand into the brown paper bag she held with her left, pulled out a small cellophane bag. Tied with a red bow, it contained a handful of shinily wrapped chocolates of different sizes. Not exactly like winning a million dollars, or even a twenty dollar gift card. But, still, something.

"I won!" I won, I thought elatedly. But how could I have? I had not even answered many of the questions. 

"Everyone who did the quiz is getting a bag." The thrill gone. Yeah, not so exciting. But I was still getting something.

"You mean I'm getting a participation trophy?" I asked, in jest and seriousness. She smiled and courtesy-giggled. "But did I win? How well did I do?"

She turned around and stepped back to the HR reception desk to get the results. Put the brown paper bag down on it. Found and rummaged through a small, small stack of papers. Ten, fifteen? In two seconds she produced the paper with the twenty-question quiz I had filled out. A fraction upper right. Seven out of twenty the score said. I got seven out of twenty right. 7/20. The figure looked even worse as a fraction. Not exactly genius level.

It was my turn to give a courtesy giggle and I did to hide my embarrassment. My parents had sent me to school for all those years for this?

It was rather clear from her face, as she looked through the papers as the other scores, that my effort had not been, shall we say laudatory. That I had not done great. I did not force her to confirm that my score was not good for her sake and mostly for mine. Seven out of twenty for a pity-participation small bag of chocolates trophy wrapped like it was something special.

I had not even get the one history question, it dealing with grammar chool history, correct. I had talked myself into writing "Bill of Rights" when "We hold these truths to be self-evident" is obviously a declaration from The Declaration. I knew from the time of participating that I did get all the answers right. After I handed in the paper, I checked online for the country with most islands. I had written Canada. The answer, surprisingly, surprisingly to me, is Sweden. I did know Rhode Island is the smallest state, Fe is the symbol for iron, Granny Smiths are apples, the NFL Hall of Fame is in Ohio, an octopus has three hearts, a group of crows is called a murder, the Disney movie with the most sequels is Toy Story. I had left blank the most expensive spice in the world, who has won the most Academy Awards, which video game series has the main character Kratos, which country has won the most World Cups, who was the first Disney princess, Mickey Mouse was originally named what, two others. 

Galling, though, cringe-worthy was my answer to We hold these truths. I had attended, been a tour guide for, the university founded by the document's author, Thomas Jefferson. Almost as, nearly as cringe: though I had worked at the convention where the iPhone was released, in San Francisco, at Moscone West (I was not in the room), in 2007 I put down 2005. 

I could offer the excuses that I had not known there was going to be a quiz that day, that I had not been given the chance to study up beforehand, that a number of the question topics I do not really care about and am way okay not knowing the answers to. That I approached the quiz as a lark, inconsequential, that I had other work I had to get back to on the floor, that I did not try that hard, had answered too quickly, was under a time pressure. Excuses. None of them particularly valid. I got a seven out of twenty (7/20). Not even fifty percent. Two of the wrong answers I did give I should have gotten right.

Why am I telling you this? Why is this story on the first page of LukeyoutheU.com?

Life has a lot of questions, I mean a lot of them. I do not know all of life's questions (no one does) and not do I know all its answers (no one and no system of belief, no collection of facts, does). I do have ideas. I have come to some conclusions, some decisions, in perhaps many. Conclusions, decisions, answers that work for me, generally. That I employ in this expanding universe, in this increasingly complex and difficult world, to live it. 

I, clearly, do not know everything. I am not suggesting that LukeyoutheU presents the answers, the ways, of life. By all means disagree with it, ignore it, forget it, if you think doing so is best. I think, believe, want LukeyoutheU to be for you, as you allow, a means to think, to feel, more broadly. More expansively. More deeply. More happily, more joyfully. About and in your life. For the good of you, for the good of the others in your world, for the good of the world as a whole. To live your life more really.

This is a strange way to begin a proposal, I easily grant you that. My proposal, the proposal of LukeyoutheU, is this: Life Is. Life is meant to enjoy and to in-joy. To be lived fully, fully for one's own sake, for the sake of others you love, for those you may not, for humanity and other species, for its own sake. Life Is. Life is Good. Life, through our active participation in it to the best of our ability, can be made, can be, Better.

Employ, use, enjoy LukeyoutheU as you will.

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