WARNING: This post is not meant to brag, but it may come off that way. The intention is to share the story so that one can see where my mind is going.
A friend of mine, whom I respect greatly, asked me the other day over the phone, "Are you as smart as you let on?"
My response, "I don't think I am smart. But I do think I am curious. Why do you ask that?"
"I don't know." He responded. "But I just wonder if you are that smart or not."
Not knowing what to say next I tried to explain myself, "I like talking with you because you challenge me to grow and think deeper. But I find myself frustrated when I am in conversations which do not seem to enrich life around me, so I ask questions about what I see in order to change conversation to something that I find enriching. That usually comes off like I am an ass. But that is not my intention. I really am curious to know what people think and believe and so I ask a lot of questions of people. And to be honest I have come to discover many people do not like questions."
"No kidding!" My friend responded.
*End of relevant part of the conversation*
I was thinking about what he said and how many people (not all) tend to not really like curiosity. Let me say that a different way, people seem to like contained curiosity but are not a fan of unbound curiosity.
I love questions. The harder the better. For instance, I have been asked:
Why do you have a blog instead of journaling?
Why do you not play paintball but are okay with Warhammer?
Why do you cuss?
To be honest, I love these questions because they keep me accountable to my actions. But few people ask such questions to a person about their core beliefs and actions. I do not know why?
I think we are all afraid (myself included) of the unbound curious person who comes into our lives and asks us about the fundamental things we do in our lives for fear we might be exposed as the hypocrites we all are. But lets face it, we all are hypocrites and it might do us all a bit of good if we were all a bit more willing to be open to such questions about our own lives from others.
So I ask you to go out and ask others questions. Usually questions that begin with "why" are great questions, but any old question is good.
On second thought, Jesus asked a lot of questions and he just pissed off a lot of people. So I guess we all need to prepare for the backlash of being Curious George.
A friend of mine, whom I respect greatly, asked me the other day over the phone, "Are you as smart as you let on?"
My response, "I don't think I am smart. But I do think I am curious. Why do you ask that?"
"I don't know." He responded. "But I just wonder if you are that smart or not."
Not knowing what to say next I tried to explain myself, "I like talking with you because you challenge me to grow and think deeper. But I find myself frustrated when I am in conversations which do not seem to enrich life around me, so I ask questions about what I see in order to change conversation to something that I find enriching. That usually comes off like I am an ass. But that is not my intention. I really am curious to know what people think and believe and so I ask a lot of questions of people. And to be honest I have come to discover many people do not like questions."
"No kidding!" My friend responded.
*End of relevant part of the conversation*
I was thinking about what he said and how many people (not all) tend to not really like curiosity. Let me say that a different way, people seem to like contained curiosity but are not a fan of unbound curiosity.
I love questions. The harder the better. For instance, I have been asked:
Why do you have a blog instead of journaling?
Why do you not play paintball but are okay with Warhammer?
Why do you cuss?
To be honest, I love these questions because they keep me accountable to my actions. But few people ask such questions to a person about their core beliefs and actions. I do not know why?
I think we are all afraid (myself included) of the unbound curious person who comes into our lives and asks us about the fundamental things we do in our lives for fear we might be exposed as the hypocrites we all are. But lets face it, we all are hypocrites and it might do us all a bit of good if we were all a bit more willing to be open to such questions about our own lives from others.
So I ask you to go out and ask others questions. Usually questions that begin with "why" are great questions, but any old question is good.
On second thought, Jesus asked a lot of questions and he just pissed off a lot of people. So I guess we all need to prepare for the backlash of being Curious George.