I have a friend whose mantra has never changed since he reached 60: “Age does not matter if you don’t mind the age.” It’s a witty good advice to those who can’t believe they’re old.
But I have my own version: age won’t matter if you keep an open, adventurous, and omnivorous mind.
When I open my eyes each morning, still in bed, I ask: what could be the delightful discovery for today? What fresh new knowledge will I stumble on? Just thinking about it already whets my mind’s appetite. And that’s my ikigai, the Japanese concept of having a purpose for living.
I have always been a knowledge seeker, but what impelled me to become more seriously motivated in my search was my encounter with Professor A. He was a consultant in a new museum project I was involved in. Although he taught history in college, he was an avidly curious individual, very well informed about things outside his expertise. I was struck by his vast storehouse of knowledge. During our brainstorming sessions, he delved into all kinds of topics, subject matter and even trivia. The rest of us just sat there and listened, fascinated by all the stuff he was sharing with us. Singlehandedly, he raised our knowledge quotient several notches higher during that time we were building the idea of a museum, which unfortunately was aborted eventually.
“I wish I could have more years because we are at a threshold of amazing space discoveries. One lifetime is not enough to know all that I am eager to know.” This is the wistful longing of one woman astro-physicist who was being interviewed in a documentary that I watched recently. She has been involved in SETI (search for extra terrestrial intelligence) for years. A bright agile-minded woman in her 70s, she exudes a lively sense of wonder and curiosity that is infectious. She wishes to be there when all her present efforts to connect with extra-terrestrial beings come to fruition. Time won’t permit it, alas.
Jane Fonda has been quoted as saying: “Ask questions. Stay curious. It’s much more important to stay interested than to be interesting.” There’s a book about the life of Stephen Hawking by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer and it’s interesting that they titled it “Stay Curious.” The power of curiosity is probably what goaded Hawking to keep on unlocking astronomical mysteries like “Black Holes” even in spite of the fact that he was bound to a wheelchair and unable to speak, until his heart finally gave up.
Have you come across the phrase “Stay hungry, stay foolish?” The late Steve Jobs of Apple Computers used it during a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. To me, it’s a timeless advice whose meaning is close to something like “stay insatiable in your search for new knowledge, nurture the spirit of the child in you who does not stop exploring without being afraid of what others say.”
I am not a serious dedicated academic researcher. I do it as an amateur, a person who engages in a pursuit on an unpaid rather than a professional basis. I do it for the fun and delight of it.
My search for new knowledge takes me to old bookstores, make me surf the Internet, meet people and ask questions, watch documentaries about unique places and people. In my choice of sources I prefer documentaries or annotated content because I lean towards knowledge based on researched facts or insightful analysis and serious commentaries.
I am eclectic when it comes to subject matter. What I find especially delightful are obscure and arcane tidbits that surprise people when I share it with them. In my look-what-I-found eagerness, I have unearthed little known facts such as that Jose Rizal was 5 feet, 2 inches tall, our Tagalog word for liquor or wine comes from the Arab term “arak” and “jungle” is from the Sanskit word “jangala,” which means rough and arid terrain. Do you know that the human brain contains around the same number of neurons as there are stars in the Milky Way, perhaps even more? Let me stop here before I get carried away.
Maybe the question now in your mind is: so what? All this collecting of facts and info, what is it good for?
First of all, it adds life to your years. My voracious curiosity leads to new discoveries and learnings that amaze, surprise, evoke joy and add flavor to the taste of each day. It makes me feel more grateful to be alive. “Get busy living or get busy dying,” says Andy Dufresne, the character played by Tim Robbins in “Shawshank Redemption.” Live curiously or get busy atrophying, which means “wasting away.”
There’s a deep satisfaction you feel in being able to share facts people didn’t know before. And that’s what I like to do. Share knowledge to help people expand their minds.
But here’s a caveat. Keeping an open mind also means allowing the process to teach us something new, which sometimes may challenge our existing or deeply held beliefs, and make us shift our perspective.
Secondly, being curious makes you more troll-proof. You become increasingly immune to the purveyors of false, manipulated or distorted information.
But I also look at every new information through the magnifying glass of healthy skepticism. It actually spurs me to find out more about it.
Knowing so much helps boost my self-confidence in talking with individuals from the upper crust of society, such as the intellectual elite, top-level executives, and even diplomats. I have discovered that a few of them are like the vain emperor in the folk tale “Emperor’s New Clothes” who gets exposed before his subjects when a child shouts out: “But he hasn’t got anything on!”
With a mental storehouse of knowledge, it is tempting to feel superior or act with arrogance, but instead what I feel is regret and dismay that people are wasting their time acquiring material possessions that only serve to make them impoverished. They have no time nor interest to acquire or add new knowledge that will transform them into people of substance.
Don’t be like others who think they know more, when in fact they don’t know anything but they don’t know it. It’s a phenomenon called “The Dunning-Kruger Effect” and you encounter such dunces everywhere, brimming with smug confidence.
The author of “Charlotte’s Web,” E.B. White, observed: “Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch”…or bring to light for the first time.
There’s an unlimited amount of stuff and meaning you’ll find in staying curious. Be in the presence of wonder! Seek it. Live it.