Here is a curious thing: “Curiosity killed the cat” is only the first half of that quote. The other half is: “but satisfaction brought it back.” What?? All this time, we have been warned that curiosity is dangerous, risky, when, in fact, the quote indicates the opportunity curiosity affords us to learn, to grow, the discover the richness of life.
Curiosity served me well as a therapist, asking the questions that would help clients explore their lives, find ways to use their life experiences in a beneficial way, and forge a path ahead. Curiosity has been an asset in ministry, getting to know my congregation, learning how I can best serve them, developing messages that draw them into deeper faith. What do we not understand about this passage? What was the context? How do we imagine the lives of the people in this story? How is it relevant to us today?
What a pity that we don’t carry into our adult lives, enough of the wonderment, the curiosity, of children. Years ago I watched my three-year-old daughter thoughtfully moving her knee up and down, finally concluding that “This is a leg elbow.”
Think of all the inventors over the centuries: Johannes Guttenberg, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers, and others who contributed to flight, to name only a few. Imagine how our lives would be without their discoveries. I would personally like to thank the many who contributed to the development of the washing machine, knowing the laborious process for cleaning that preceded it.
Curiosity, then, is our friend, inviting us to go beyond perceived limitations, offering opportunities to enrich our own lives and those of others.
May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter. Shalom, Kate
Hope’s Café Bonus: In its earliest known usage, the proverb about the cat was used in the sense that “care killed the cat,” meaning worry was destructive. That idea was conveyed by English playwright Ben Johnson in a 1598 play and used similarly by Shakespeare in 1599 in Much Ado About Nothing. It would be several centuries later before the term would evolve into the way we presently use it. The earliest known printed version of “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back” was in a Galveston newspaper in 1912.
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