Kelly and the curiosity sponge

Now if my niece Kelly were to do the spirituality matrix (see previous blog) and were asked to put together the spiritual qualities that she expresses, she might include these qualities: spontaneous, intelligent, graceful, humorous, active, compassionate, witty and above all curious – curious like a sponge.

To prove just how curious Kelly is, I have juxtaposed definitions of curious (taken from a great dictionary site www.onelook.com) with a sampling of Kelly’s questions from a recent conversation we had:

CURIOUS - adjective: having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning more (Example: "A trap door that made me curious")
· How do I get IM? A website? On skype? An email?
· I want to learn Chinese.
· The World is Flat – what kind of a book is that?
· Let’s find out where Rabka, Poland is.
· Can I be on your blog?

CURIOUS - adjective: eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about others' concerns) (Example: "A curious child is a teacher's delight")
· You heal through prayer? How would you heal my teeth?
· What a cool website. I know, you could start an advice column, and I would send you questions and sign it with goofy names like, “Lost in Texas”
· You mean you were divorced once? What happened?
· I don’t get stuff about electricity and technology. Do you?

CURIOUS - adjective: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected (Example: "A curious hybrid accent")
I was impressed with Kelly’s attentiveness when discussing the load bearing walls of our house and how we needed to understand how trusses worked and what we could do as a result of that knowledge. Kelly listened very closely and understandably. So much so that I thought, this kid is going to be an architect. When I told her that, she said she didn’t understand a thing I said, but if her attentive listening made me think she was capable of great things like architecture, perhaps she could use that look a bit more.

The virtues of curiosity and what others say:

“The ability to make big leaps of thought is a common denominator among the originators of breakthrough ideas.”
--Daniel Pink, author of best-selling book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the information age to the conceptual age

“I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
--Eleanor Roosevelt, UN Diplomat, humanitarian, First Lady

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
--Albert Einstein, German born Physicist

"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind."
--Samuel Johnson, English poet 1709-1784

“While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.”
--Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer and founder of Christian Science

“The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity."
--Anatole France, French Writer, Nobel Prize for Literature 1921

“No, really. What is it? I really want to know.”
--Kelly, curiosity sponge, middle school student, wonderful daughter, tolerant sister, loyal friend and a very loved niece

Yours in holy curiosity,

Kim