If you’re curious about something, you don’t want to hurt or kill or interfere with it. You — I — want to observe it as it goes about it’s own business, in its own way, to see what it does. It’s peaceful and peace-inducing.
I could be talking about a melodic line, a bug, a friend a loved one, a colleague, a celestial phenomenon, a river… In general I seem to be thinking about things that occur in the natural, physical world but I suppose this could apply to a curiosity about how things work — a computer, a ballpoint pen, hand sanitizer. In this instance I’m thinking (again) about psychology research scientists and others who are curious about how the mind works.
Passionate curiosity is quite a wonderful thing and fully engages the mind like other adrenaline-fueled pursuits for excitement but with very little downside…. Other than, maybe, that the thinker can maybe get as absorbed in the object of curiosity at the sacrifice of things required to maintain one’s good health; I can imagine curiosity, like creativity and inventiveness, beginning to look like an escape from the demands of life, like so many other things can — dope, skiing, Hiking The Trail, sex, loss of sense of self in a relationship.
I didn’t expect to go down this thought path. Perhaps like so many things, curiosity can begin as a purely good impulse, like sex and other things that are enthralling, but can lead a person on a path that at some point begins to have pain associated with it.
It’s a funny thing to think about. Because curiosity could be entirely innocent and observational, but, depending on the mind that is curious, it could also lead to very troubling ends. “What happens when I feed this mouse?” could lead to “what happens when I torture this mouse?” “What happens when I show love to this person?” could lead to “What happens when I withhold love from this person?” Ouch.
Well, initially, I thought the existence of creativity is evidence of a friendly universe. And I’m going to stick with that for the moment. However, I’m also noting how my mind, inclined somewhat to be worried about how things can go wrong, is contemplating how a quality like curiosity can go badly, instead of luxuriating in all the wonderful things that curious minds have brought about.
Evidence of a friendly universe: curiosity. Up to a point. (Are limits evidence of a friendly universe?)
Q