Ode to Curiosity [Refresh]
Morning Thoughts #13
*This post was originally published on March 7th, 2023.
Friends, here is my ode to curiosity. There is a kind of juvenile wisdom that teaches one to “question everything.” As for myself, I have no problem with questions, but I want to be more specific. I teach that you should be curious about everything! Oh, what nutrients you will bring forth to your own personal soil through relentless asking and digging! I believe in the soul and its soil! Why pretend the impossible is possible? You will never be able to know everything, read every book, analyze every chart, fact-check every report, but you can and you should be curious about everything!
Rather than IQ, I think the most accurate intelligence test would be one that measures curiosity. Do you want to understand the context of everything? Are you curious about the inner lives of the people you meet, as well as that of the strangers you pass on the street? Or, does nothing in the world stand out to you? Well, sit down in self-imposed detention until you learn to meditate with wonder. Even the most mundane daily sights contain miracles for perceptive eyes.
From curiosity comes the path forward; curiosity is fertile soil for what’s new and needed. Curiosity also asks if what’s new is needed at all. Enough with regurgitated wisdom and postures learned from stick authority figures. Ask: why, why, why—not helpless before God but triumphant before the future. And how does this compare? Who benefits from this, and what have we lost? Friends, I am going to let you in on a little secret—history did not begin 200 years ago. History doesn’t repeat, but it contains many patterns that do. Discovering these patterns is a lifetime’s work and is infinitely valuable as we consider better paths forward.
There is almost no greater crime for which us moderns should stand accused than our lack of curiosity. If we were sufficiently curious, we could upend the advertising industry in a day and remake our politics in a week. There has never been an era with so much information at our fingertips, but why does it so often seem that these fingers are the digits of amputated limbs? Wikipedia certainly has its biases, but my gosh, why not look up the major events of the year 1282 if you're thinking about it randomly? Such immediate (approximation of) knowledge was impossible even 30 years ago! But why do we leave it so unattended? Is it because this increase of accessible knowledge has been accompanied by an even greater increase in accessible entertainment?
Friends, understand, our authorities only consent to democracy because they are sure of their ability to pull the levers in our minds before we pull the levers in their voting booths. They are motivated to keep our curiosity levels shallow and that our questions only provide answers as far as they can stand. This is not the way! Instead, become swimmers in the deep and follow only those who can swim faster and farther than you.