Curiosity- Day 28

 

“Asking questions isn’t just a way of understanding the world. It’s a way of changing it.”

Brian Grazer

In his book, A Curious Mind, Brian Grazer points out that, “Sometimes questions are received as somehow a challenge to authority.” He continues with the the idea that curiosity may result in the question, “How come you’re in charge?”

In my younger years I rarely questioned things that I had been told. When it came to religion, government, health and history I relied upon the “experts” to guide me. 

Overtime though, I realized that many things that seemed to be set in stone would change without much explanation. Perhaps the infamous egg causing higher cholesterol craze that left many a chicken scratching her head. I suppose we could just chalk this up to knowing more, but then I learned that many times who ever was in charge at the time seemed to set the agenda for the narrative. 

This first began with learning more about food, and how different lobbyists could influence how we eat through government proclamations. Remember the original food pyramid. However, my curiosity took me down a different path as I learned that not everyone was in agreement with these so called “experts.”

As I learned more about the history of my country I found myself asking more and more questions. However, what I learned was that if you question too much you are discounted as a “conspiracy theorist” wearing a tin foil hat. No one wants to appear the fool, so people stop asking and fail to trust their own instincts. 

I think perhaps the last three years has been a textbook study about not being allowed to ask questions. Suddenly the internet decided what we could be exposed to, and censorship became rampant. Over time more and more information came to light which aligned with what some of the early naysayers were proposing all along. 

Meanwhile, decisions had been made that were not always in the best interest of those making them. 

Today I no longer follow blindly what I’m told. I ask questions, look toward credible sources, and to be honest even when skeptical I don’t completely rule out the possibility that something might be true. 

Sometimes we are hesitant to ask questions because we don’t want to appear stupid. However, Grazer reminds us asking questions actually results in the opposite. “People who ask questions, in fact, are rarely thought of as stupid.”

I encourage each of you to keep your curiosity high, and not believe what you are told without giving it any extra thought. This may require a little more effort on your part, but it will be well worth it in the long run.