Have you ever wondered what your cat calls you? Have you ever wondered how long it takes for a giraffe to throw up? Have you ever wondered why you cannot taste your own tongue? Have you ever wondered how many miles your thumb has scrolled? Have you ever wondered if a murderer has walked past you and thought “No, not that one”? Have you ever wondered why a woman cannot put mascara on with their mouth closed? Have you ever wondered why some people are superstitious and others are only stitious? These are all questions posed on the internet. Curious?
So, let us pause: have you ever wondered? Have you ever wondered why we are asked to wonder why? Consider this, then: have we ever wondered what it must have been like to have been Martin Luther King? One of his strongest views was that love must conquer hate and indeed, he will no doubt have wondered often why people do hate when love is clearly the better option. Interestingly, we have his thoughts on that matter when he said that “I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other”. In short, he was perhaps saying people were not being curious; they did not take the time or the effort to find out about other people. And look where it leads…
A saying that is often attributed (though not necessarily accurately) to Walt Whitman was “Be curious, not judgmental”. That is a powerful message for our youngsters to learn early in life. They need to be encouraged to be curious, to wonder, to ask, to consider, to reflect. What happens if…? Why does that…? How can this …? Where could this…?
Have you ever wondered why people are judgmental (other than that they are ‘mental’)”? In essence, we are not bothering to look into the matter and learn and understand the reasons and motives behind behaviour and actions — we are not curious. If we are judgmental, we are in effect also temperamental, compartmental, regimental, incremental — all mental. Being judgmental is really a form of belittling and therefore of bullying; it is being furious, not curious. If we knew more, if we asked questions, if we were curious, we would find we would not judge. Instead, we would understand people; we would come closer to people. Judgmental, in short, is making statements (often not based on fact); curious is asking questions.
Then have we ever wondered what benefits and incentives there are in being curious? Neil deGrasse Tyson commented that “No-one is dumb who is curious. The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives”. Mario Testino wrote that “My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities”. Anne Sweeney said that “I’m naturally curious, and I’ve always been driven by my curiosity. Curiosity gets people excited. Curiosity leads to new ideas, new job, new industries”. They are all saying the same thing: be curious. Live in wonder-land.
Bill Maher made a subtle interesting point: “Curious people are interesting people; I wonder why that is.” Oscar Wilde though made a more light-hearted comment when he declared that “Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious. Both are disappointed”. The truth (not the joke) is we are not disappointed by being curious. As Walt Disney asserted: “When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.”
Someone has said that we may well have had a moment when we looked at someone and wondered: “Seriously…?” You might even read this article now and wonder: “Seriously…?” Are we really saying we should be curious? Serious? Yes! Bill Gates pointed out that “Unfortunately, the highly curious student is a small percentage of the kids.” It is up to us to make every child interesting (and not dumb) by being curious — serious. Would that not just be wonder-ful?
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