Focused Randomness….
1. If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?
2. If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?
3. Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
4. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?
5. Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.
6. If a cow laughed, would milk come out of her nose?
You’ve got questions, I have questions – It’s natural to want answers… it’s what separates us from the french. The actual questions don’t matter nearly as much as the fact that we keep asking them. Curiosity is what makes innovation possible, it asks what if, and why not – rather than accepting things as they are and imagines what they could be…
As I understand it, curiosity killed the cat and because of that, curiosity hasn’t received good press over the centuries. Saint Augustine wrote in Confessions, AD 397, that, in the eons before creating heaven and earth, God “fashioned hell for the inquisitive”. John Clarke, in Paroemiologia, 1639 suggested that “He that pryeth into every cloud may be struck with a thunderbolt”. In Don Juan, Lord Byron called curiosity “that low vice”. That bad opinion, and the fact that cats are notoriously inquisitive, lead to the source of their demise being changed from ‘care’ to ‘curiosity’.
As with the multitude of warnings we’ve all received since childhood, curiosity is one of the hardest to ignore…. not only has it killed innumerable cats through history but there is also the cautionary tale of Pandoras Box…. In Greek Mythology Pandora’s Box is a large box carried by Pandora that, when opened by her, unleashed many terrible things on mankind – ills, toils and sickness, – and hope. Contrary to popular belief, in the original story, Pandora’s “box” was not actually a box at all, but rather a jar. Hence, the historically correct term would be “Pandora’s jar”… another direct attempt to quash any inquisitive impulse we may have… but despite all the historical attempts to keep us from looking behind the curtain, we just can’t stop the NEED, to know who the wizard is….
Going back to one of my earlier posts, when I spoke about keeping your young vibrant creative self vital…. one of the ways to do this is to stay curious…. do not consider this permission to start peeping on your neighbors BUT you should keep asking questions and not just that But go so far as to actually then follow thru and look for the answers….
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Or I think I know what I’m doing but then why do I get the distinct feeling I am getting preachy lately? Is it my imagination? Maybe but not much you can do about it… cause this is my house up in here…. the other day I asked for some interactivity, I asked any and all of you to bust me out three funny, quick, clever, or witty possible answers to what was going on in a picture…. of of the 73 readers I had that day… I got exactly ZERO responses…nada….. Ok message rec’d – I will no longer ask for any participation… you’re here to read and that is bloody well it… understood…. I’ll continue playing the little monkey dancing on the street corner for your enjoyment, because I AM creative, funny, quick, witty and clever, so you don’t have to be…..
Have a Great Day.