The Charm of Simple Curiosity

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”

~James Thurber.

Not only does this quote allude to a more interesting person, at source it’s about a person who’s innately curious, and with it, naturally charming. Think about it. The person with a genuinely curiously questioning method is less of a threat to others and they’re naturally authentic listeners.

But, there is also another thing about this sort of person. They will get to the root of the real issues quicker and with more exacting precision.

The Problem with Know-It-Alls

What is the issue with know-it-alls? Simple; they have inferiority complexes. For people with a good esteem there is little or nothing to prove to anyone, other than for actual performance (and we all need to perform).

Anyone who sets out to give anyone who’ll listen (and, indeed, many who won’t) the answers to very uninteresting things is running from themselves most of all. They don’t have much perception of their own ignorance, or desire to change if a drop of perception is theirs.

We miss the point, though, if we’re stuck at the juncture of countering ignorantly knowledgeable people. We’ve got the wrong focus.

Facing the Real Problems

There is more to this issue than meets the eye. We cannot actually afford to live life without correct perspective, and that perspective is always the learning perspective.

The real problems of our lives—those which we rarely see but always face—are nothing of the kind that meets with our pleasant ignorance. These are the things that frustrate and bewilder us at deeper levels than we’re even often consciously aware of.

There are so many things that keep us from this level of awareness; so many barriers to knowing the right questions to ask. But, it’s curiosity that paves the way to overcoming the barriers.

Saving Some Time, Space and Effort for Curiosity

We have a very endearing personal quality to obtain here. It’s one that will stave us away from many manners of anxiety and depression, as well as presenting us before the thrones of discovery and vision—which is toward self-actualisation toward transcendence.

Curiosity is forward focus. It’s not really interested in the past, unless there’s the value of experience to be gleaned. It’s full tilt forward and bent on a purpose central to the life-giving acquisition of wisdom itself.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.