Curiosity is easier the older I get. I think that’s because when we are young, we are terrified of looking stupid. I was. I still am, sometimes. But less so with every passing day.

We pretend to know things when we’re kids. When we get older, we realize nobody knows anything, and it becomes a lot more fun to just ask, “How does that work?”

I shot this photo on a moving blanket. It’s symbolic to me of movement and change and adjustment. And so much of that starts with a sense of Curiosity. Walking through life with a sense of “What is it?”. “How’s that work?”.

We ask how high something goes. How deep it could be. We find all of science nestled neatly under the Curiosity card.

When I was young, (and sometimes still) I wanted to be the guy who knew everything. I wanted to find all of my value in Capability, in the value I add to a community. Now I am more easily able to rest a bit easier, to ask questions, to not know the answers. To cultivate an okay-ness with being uncertain. But still curious.

As I watch my country and planet undergo some of the most formative and pivotal societal adjustments of any of our lifetimes, (I see you there, grandma), I am struck with the great lack of curiosity exhibited by many people. Many people around me. Many people in leadership, making decisions that will affect my grandchildren.

I have enjoyed the work of an author, Pete Enns. Our trajectories are not identical—I ain’t no clone—but I’ve drawn solace in these last years listening to his words on podcasts and reading them in some of his books, including one called “The Sin of Certainty”. I will not give a full book report here. Suffice it to say the “sin” in question is, in my words, a gross lack of curiosity. Often brought on by a fear of the unknown and unknowable, the sin of certainty seems to have infected even the most secular of us in this age.

I have been so very guilty of being certain of my ideas, my ideals, my beliefs. So certain of certain things. And I guess here, as I embark on the second half of my life, I want to do things that encourage curiosity in myself and in others. What are you curious about?

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