Cultivating Curiosity

“Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.”~ Vladimir Nabokov

Mathew Arnold, writing in the middle of the nineteenth century, noted that the word “curiosity” which in other languages was used positively to denote  “a high and fine quality” of human nature, was in English a negative term associated with idleness. It was his observation that we are uncomfortable with curiosity-the “free play of the mind on all subjects”-and too easily satisfied with “very inadequate ideas”.

Curiosity, with its tendency to ask questions and to question the answers, discomforts the status quo and dissatisfies the self-satisfied. Dewey wrote on hundred years ago, “In the feeling, however dim, that the facts which directly meet the senses are not the whole story, that there is more behind them and more to come from them, lies the germ of intellectual curiosity”

We might ask ourselves what we do to encourage this dim feeling, to help form the authentic questions that will help us satisfy our motivationally original desire to know that belongs only to us. We might ask ourselves what we do to protect the spirit of inquiry and cultivate curiosity.

The pursuit of knowledge is ongoing. Unlike most desires, this desire is insatiable. Human existence is a quest to understand. We cannot stop the desire to know, to question. The desire to know is balanced with the desire to communicate, to share, to connect and the desire to make sense, to understand, and to know the meaning.

“Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived”~Campbell

In an effort to make ourselves understood, we create structures to hold knowledge, such as books, articles and the Internet. This site is one such structure. I share my stories, my explorations, my questions, my quests. I share examples of ways I honor the call to adventure and exploration and how I protect the spirit of inquiry, how I do important work without permission, and ways I keep active in places where something might happen.  By sharing my stories of cultivation, I hope to inspire, engage, and grow new seekers and curious explorers, planting the seeds for investigation, exploration, and independent inquiry which are critical to doing important and original work

I invite you to join the adventure!

“The Seeker provides a society with the vitality essential for continued existence”~ Joseph Campbell

“The seeker cannot resist the call of the Sirens. If you have heard the call you know how strong the pull is. Nothing can stop you. Parents, husband, kids, reason, lack of money, disinterest from the media, you have no choice but to obey the call. You have to follow your inner voice, no matter the consequences, and that is as old as human kind. It’s the stuff of legends and myths. What these stories have in common is the lone hero, a woman or man who goes out into the unknown to fight dragons and demons or to fulfill impossible tasks”