Recently, an article drifted into the Inbox here at The Department of Wondering About All Kinds Of Stuff. The article, penned by Makai Allbert, was about curiosity. This was the intro:
“Leonardo da Vinci’s to-do lists were like no one else’s.
His journals reveal an impressive range of ideas, from sketches of hearts and how blood circulates to questions about a woodpecker’s tongue and also how to make liquid soap. Nothing was beneath his attention. For da Vinci, curiosity did not wait for permission. It is what made him “the most relentlessly curious man in history,” as described by art historian Kenneth (We don’t need any more art critics thank you very much) Clark.
We’re all born with that same drive. No other species asks ‘why’ the way we do. The more researchers look, the more they find that this mental itch is more than just a childish phase or a taste for the unfamiliar. Curiosity supercharges your memory, slows down the aging process, and even makes hostile relationships harmonious.”
Overall it’s a fascinating article but I don’t think there’s much mystery surrounding the fact that no other species ask ‘why’ the way we do. Hello? It’s because they can’t talk.
Nevertheless, although they can’t talk, lots of critters besides we humans demonstrate that they are pretty darned curious. Take goats for example. Say you just bought a new pickup truck. The first thing that your goat will do is climb up and stand on the roof of that truck, to check out the view. And it will tell its friends to join in.
Maybe you don’t have a goat. Doesn’t matter. Your neighbour’s goat will eventually wander over to check things out.
Octopi are just as curious as goats. Maybe more so. If you leave your guitar unattended anywhere in the house, you can bet that your octopus will find it and will be strumming away on the thing sooner or later. I hope you like The Beatles.
Dogs aren’t necessarily noted for their curiosity but it’s clear that this dog is wondering what the heck that owl is doing in the drainpipe. And for its part, the owl was probably investigating the pipe and got stuck in it.
This brings us to cats. If an empty cardboard box is left undefended anywhere in your house, a cat will get inside it. Even if it’s not your cat.
I knew just by looking at Zoe, that she was going to be trouble. She was way too innocent-looking. Later in life she somehow got into the cold air return duct in the ceiling of the furnace room and we subsequently had to extract her from a return duct opening on the first floor after hearing plaintive meowing emanating from the walls. We thought the place was haunted.
Zoe would also wander across the street to visit our neighbors, probably looking to see if they had any cardboard boxes to explore.
Here she is, 12 years later, looking innocent as always but I know she is going to attempt to try to get up under that newly-arrived fern and she will probably knock the thing over, eventually. Cats are notorious for investigating things but also pushing these same things off a table, a countertop or other flat surface, just to see what will happen.
The good news is that people (and cats) continue to be curious as they age. And research shows that curiosity is very beneficial. We should continue to “follow our noses”, keep on reading, socialize, meet new people, ask them probing questions, play Mah Jong frequently, learn a few languages, spy on our neighbors and take up new hobbies such as tunnelling, investigative journalism, beekeeping and the like. This will benefit our brains by boosting our dopamine, increasing activity in the nucleus accumbens-whatever that is- and the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (located near Area 51). Our memory may improve, and we may reduce our risk of dementia and also our tendency to write run-on sentences.
What’s not to like?
I’m going to wrap this up now because I suddenly became curious about why certain types of metal files are called “flat bastards”, “mill bastards” and “round bastards” and I want to go find out.
I hope I can pique your curiosity too, by leaving you with two things: a vignette and a photo of a graphic T-shirt.
Here’s the vignette:
My Dad’s non-Grecian mother lived in a cozy apartment on the third floor of our old house. I was a frequent visitor up there before Grade 1 started. We’d play cards, have tea and my “upstairs” Grandma would pump me for information about what was going on below-decks. (My other grandparents were Greek. They lived on the first floor of our house and hence a continual stream of Greeks was coming and going all the time. There was a lot to keep tabs on down there.)
Anyway, one morning, during an information-gathering session on the third floor, I inquired, “Grandma, how come you’re so snoopy?”
She replied, “If you don’t ask, you’ll never find out.”
So true.
Here’s the T-shirt:
P.S. In case you are curious, curiosity only has one “u”. Check it out.
The Department of Lateral Thinking 
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