Scenario 1: The car behind is inhabited with a couple who have been arguing about the same issue for years and years. They're heading to dinner and essentially, no one is speaking because they're both in their own little world. The love is there, but, somewhere along the way, the communication connection was lost. They take notice of the bumper sticker and each, in their own way, compute the message...Live Curious. They get to the restaurant, order their food and as they sip their wine, one of them...probably the wife...says..."so, what do you think that means...live curious?" And so, the conversation begins and, in time, the connection is restored. Happy ending, of course.
Scenario 2: At the next stoplight, a, single mom and her 2 children are in the car behind. She's taking them to school and running late and the kids are fussing and she's majorly stressed...but the 3rd grader notices the bumper sticker and asks Mom what it means. Tired, though she is, she manages to connect with this message and tells him it just means to ask questions about things you don't understand. So, from there, they begin a slow recovery to become the family they want to be.
Scenario 3: A guy , in a truck, is deep in thought about the economy and worried about his job and his home and his future. He's behind a car at the stoplight and takes notice of the bumper sticker...Live Curious. He thinks...WTF??? . Botttom line...he's overwhelmed.
Many scenarios come to mind, but it takes me away from my point.
Live Curious. Hmmmm. Do you think many of us have lost the art of that? I think so. In the last decade, it seems to me, there is less inclination to think about issues because we're so busy and so scattered in our thinking, it's just easier to have others think for us. We listen to the chatter of the media and the pundits who are just more than happy to do our thinking for us. And, we tend to trust the ones we listen to, so... be it politics, left or right...or religion, pro or con...or our health or how to spend our money or raise or kids...or...or...or.
Did we just give up on Live Curious? Did we age ourselves out of that concept? Are we simply victims of information overload and so now we're just like the truck driver in scenario #3...WTF??? Gimme me a break, for crying out loud...bring on the reality shows and partisan "news" shows...religious TV shows.......ANYTHING...just please don't make me think. Let them do it for me.
Live Curious??? Maybe if we ask, really, really nicely, our children...or, our grandchildren, will teach us.
Living curiously.... I agree, it is a dying art but I worry more for our future generation than I do ourselves.... they are the ones who seem to lack curiosity in humanity. They are happy to surround themselves with their gadgets.... they plug into their music or constant texting mode and miss out on a lot that is around them.... compliments from strangers, nature sounds, babies crying, old people laughing. Those are the precious sounds of life, and the young ones are not curious about them. I know this is just my perspective, and I am stereotyping based on what I see in one of my children and in many of my students. The future will be different because of their approach and where they choose to focus their curiosity.
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