Do You Believe Today Is Wednesday?

Today, I was met by one of my many coworkers and was given a philosophical challenge. Daily, my life is met with people who think I'm some kind of genius and every day, I have to remind them that I am just a mere mortal working in the office, just like them. This day was no different.
 I have a coworker that loves to ask me all manner of questions, just to check that my brain hasn't turned to mush yet. So this was no different, except maybe the question he had for me.
 Before he gave me this day's puzzle piece to unwrap. He prepped me and promised me that if I unlocked this question I will undoubtedly unravel the secrets of the universe and progressively become a superior thinker, free from mortal coils of reasoning and usual daily office chatter "How's you doings?- and the fine". He warns me that this answer must be in a few words in the first sentence and no more than five words in the second sentence. So after he tells me this major preemptive preamble to his "grand universalistic constitution", he finally asks me the ethereal question. He said :

"Do you believe that today is Wednesday?"

I was shocked at the depth and of the gravity of this question! I was wondering if there was some double meaning or some eastern philosophical trick hidden to this, so I wrote it down, just to make sure. Scribble scribble scribble. Cool, I got it.

 I must have thought through the entire question for about maybe 15 seconds and said,

Yes, I Believe.

Since Yesterday was Tuesday.

So not to confuse words on this quest for truth, I wrote it down, gave it to him, and skipped away like a mountain goat.

He wrote me back.

Upset in his tone. 

"1. This kind of answer could give me my cat [be given by my cat]"

"2. Nobody doubts that yesterday was Tuesday."

"3.You totally missed the monumental issue which this question is aimed at."

"Wrong."

Being the average  Dominique'an American Male that I am, with a unyielding hunger for challenge, mystery and intrigue, I went over to him and asked. "Was there more to this question? It looked pretty straight forward to me."

He said "I can't tell you that because you would know the answer immediately." Obviously I though.

I raised an eyebrow, like I smelled a trap.

He said the answer to such questions is so deep that you have to mill over it, flex that brain muscle and come up with it on your own. If i give it to you it would be like all the other people who are self focused and shallow in their understandings of what we call common sense.

So I figured I'd have another go at this key to the universe of philosophy.

So I took it apart.

line by line

Do = a question of motives seeking opinion

You= As a person that I'm questioning to find your motives.

Believe= Agree as I have come to agree and believe based on appearance or on  popular opinion.

That= stated fact on this subject (here is the implication)

Today= this day/noun (add anything here)

Is= actually what i am implying to you (to believe like i do)

Wednesday= the date in question.

So this time I came back to him and said,

"Perhaps it is"

What'd you think it really is?

He liked that answer

 but still said "wrong"

"There's only one right answer to this question."

Now at this point I return to the library to seek reprieve and gather my wits. He has given me old English poetry to sort through and I've played chess with this gentleman before and he often would let me know if my chess game is worthy for him to continue playing.  If i made too many wrong moves he would want us to start all over again. We got so close to completing one particular chess game that was very ,very intense, and increased my chess prowess but we ran out of time and never finished that was the last time we played. That was on my tenth go at the game with him, just to get that far.

This debacle was no different.

It was an apparently simple question. no more information given to me to chew on. nope my quest is a desert bound journey where hints would be rare, like water.

He came back to me and said "Greg, lets change it up, lets change the equation:

"Do you believe that this is a pen."

Again, with no more details than that. I pause here to contemplate further.

I do believe it is an accusation of my ocular belief system, it has within it a statement an implied understanding of common sense, that is accepted by all, and is based on its  appearance, but the answer he seeks is specific. He said don't think so hard. The answer is right there. I smelled trap again. I felt like advance brain washing techniques are being levied upon me, so trying not to think so hard.

 I said.

"Yes I do believe that its a pen, based on its appearance."

 What any thinking human would say.

He told me I have 24 hours to contemplate the answer.

I'll tell you what he says tomorrow.

It has been many weeks since.

This is June 7th 2012
 I tried to figure out what the correct answer was to his liking and never gave it much thought after that first few days.

 So i saw my coworker and said,
"I give up."

He said to me ( I did about think this, btw)
"It has nothing to do with belief. it is a matter of knowing."

To which I quipped back
"knowing is like believing.
which is contingent upon your ability to accept it or not." I added "IT IS Wednesday and THIS IS a pen, whether you believe it to be or not. My belief or opinion doesn't validate its reality in anyway , just probably only in my mind." 

So I said "I understand that."
correction, actually, it is what is.