What is Curiosity?

Curiosity is a curious thing; it is defined as “inquisitiveness, a strong desire to learn or know something.”

You often hear it said that curiosity is something that children have in abundance, and as we grow older, we become less inquisitive. I wonder if that is true. Maybe as adults, we prioritize in a different way than we did when we were children.

For example, when I was young, I often wondered how come we could lift a telephone and speak to someone in a different country? How did the sound go there, without wires or any other visible means of traveling? Now I don’t think about this anymore (I was never really able to figure out how it worked anyway).  I totally take for granted that I will be communicating with someone very far away within a split second. These days I am even able to see them in real-time without wondering how.

But I have to say I am still curious about a lot of things. Working with older people really fuels the desire to find out more. Most days, I am at my computer on Google looking up some strange thing or another. This morning, for example, I printed out facts about why flamingos are pink! This came up in conversation in a quiz in the nursing home, and while I knew that the answer was that it is because of what they eat, finding out more was really interesting and made for good discussion in the group.

I think it is so important not to become complacent. Did you ever see a child picking up an object with their hands, really examining it, turning it this way and that in wonderment? Learning new things makes life more interesting!

Maybe your week will end with you knowing something you didn’t know before? Let your curiosity rule!

Maria Brady