Curiosity-Your
Superpower
“Curiosity
is the essence of human existence. ‘Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come
from? Where are we going?’… I don’t know the answers to those questions. I don‘t
know what’s over there around the corner. But I want to find out.”
Gene
Cernan
Curiosity
seems to be a proper mammalian trait. Dogs stick their noses into every
possible hole and clump of grass. Cats get into cardboard boxes, paper bags;
they can be found napping on closet shelves and on top of kitchen cabinets. But
human beings carry curiosity to a whole new level—we want to know everything. Nowadays,
we google our questions—for instance, I just went to YouTube and watched a
video about how to put an accent on a French name using an English keyboard.
There are so many things we can learn now just by clicking on a website. Let’s
hope our cats and dogs don’t figure this out or we’ll never have access to our
computers again.
In his
lecture Tuesday night, Jon Meacham mentioned curiosity as an essential value, and as a requirement in having an educated mind. You don’t have to go to college
to be smart, but you do need a curious mind. People who don’t ask questions and
seek answers remain in an infantile state for their whole lives. Curiosity
keeps us digging until we find the right answer, the correct information.
Curious people do not blindly follow; they inform themselves by considering all
the information available to them and then make an educated decision.
My parents did not graduate
college, but they and their forebears were readers. The public library was a regular weekly stop just like the grocery store. We were reading or being read to from
the crib, and I passed that on to my children. Meacham, when asked what he would
advise the college students in the audience, said first and foremost, read. It
doesn’t matter what you read, what genre, or whether the classics are high on
your list—just read everything you can. Meacham advised reading books—the kind
with paper pages and cardboard overs. According to him, there is a difference
in the eye-movement, and in eye/brain coordination that enhances comprehension
and retention of information between reading an actual book and a screen of any
kind. Neurologically speaking, books are better for mental acuity.
Researcher
Brené Brown said: “Curiosity is the superpower for the second half of our
lives—it keeps us learning, it keeps us asking questions, and it increases our
self-awareness.” After a certain age, our brains don’t make new neurons,
but we can grow extra dendrites on the existing ones for our whole lives if we
keep learning and feeding our brains new information. Like any muscle in the
body, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Curiosity is what keeps us “bright-eyed
and bushy-tailed.” I hope your curiosity leads you to new discoveries today. Enjoy
your superpower.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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