I am looking at Pepa, the cat I live with
now. Pepa doesn’t stop playing. Her behaviour seems crazy sometimes. But it
does so less when you remember that her behaviour is driven by the high
curiosity she always has. Pepa leaves nothing in the room unchecked. As she
does, she reminds me why I love cats. But let me elaborate.
We as humans are also curious by nature.
But as we grow our curiosity decreases. They tell us that sometimes we have to
listen to our inner kid, and what that mainly means is that we have to keep our
natural tendency to be curious alive. As human beings the best gift nature gave us
(God, if you want) is our capacity to be curious along with our capacity to
understand and learn. But curiosity and intelligence are sides of the same
coin. One without the other makes no sense. As those with high intelligence but
with no desire to learn are wasting their capacity, curiosity without
intelligence can even be disastrous. So the saying goes “curiosity killed the
cat” (Pepa is fine for those of you worrying about it). But that curiosity is
precisely why I love cats so much (despite my allergies to them, ironic!). You
will find with difficulty an animal as curious as a cat (and most likely that
is what made them divine figures in ancient civilizations like the Egyptian.
Egyptians were very curious themselves and so very successful). Unfortunately for
Pepa, cats beat us in curiosity but not in our capacity to understand and learn.
But we, as human beings, enjoy curiosity and intelligence. Curiosity along with
intelligence makes the most powerful force and is the essence of what we are.
Curiosity is probably the main force behind
knowledge, innovation and technological change. There would be no science without
curiosity.
All main brains in the history of humanity
have been characterised by being highly curious. Curiosity makes us want to know
more, pay attention to things, dig for answers, pose new questions. Curiosity
make us realize the wonders in small details, try to understand the functioning
behind everything that surrounds us. Curiosity led our ancestors to travel out
of Africa and around the whole globe, discover new places, experiment with new
things, and develop new ideas. Curiosity ultimately led us into space. Curiosity
is natural to us as human beings, but it can be fostered or discouraged. More
curious kids learn more and are not just more successful but also happier in
life. In fact, we begin leaving this world when our curiosity vanishes. When we
no longer have desire to learn new things, meet new people and understand more,
our brain starts drying and we can be sure that with it our life starts coming
to an end.
Furthermore, as Spiderman would say, “with
great powers come great responsibilities”! But don’t wait to have spider powers!
Our great powers reside in our curiosity and intelligence. Our responsibility
is to make the best use of them. Foster curiosity and you will understand more,
you will be disappointed less often, you will accept those around you. You will
welcome new cultures, new peoples, new places, new ideas. Foster curiosity and
you will be less afraid of what you don’t understand, of other cultures, of
other ways of seeing and doing things. Foster curiosity and you will understand
more about your own life and yourself.
But most importantly, foster curiosity and
you will live a more satisfying life…and enjoy watching cats play!
