Thursday Thirteen #550

1. I ran across this site called CuriosityStream - which roused my curiosity. Its $2.99 a month. It's about learning stuff.
 
2. I think curious people learn more than people who are not curious. Curious people ask questions - why is the sky blue? - and then seek out answers. Everyone has a little curiosity about them, but some simply use it to get through the day, while others take it way out to the edges of the universe.
 
3. Here's another site about curiosity. It says curiosity makes you smarter. We need more curiosity.
 
4. I was one of those children who asked about everything. I drove my mother and grandmother wild with my questions. I was reading by the time I was three simply so I could satisfy my own curiosities.
 
5. My grandmother had a set of World Book Encyclopedias, one of the things she pointed to with pride, that I would sit and look at for hours when I was a child. I have no idea what I learned from those pages, but surely something stuck with me. Now I'm curious as to why I can't buy a set of encyclopedias anymore, though I know it's because of the Internet and profit/loss margins. Now I wonder if someone else is putting out encyclopedias.
 
6. Curiosity makes your mind active, or keeps it active. When you stop being curious, you grow dim.
 
7. Curiosity also helps you develop ideas, and brings in new insights into what is going on around you. If you aren't curious enough to switch TV channels and stick only to one news viewpoint, your brain becomes limited to that viewpoint. Your thoughts dig a deep rut and you lose sight of other ideas.
 
8. Being curious allowed me to be a good reporter. I was curious about everyone I met. I still am. Why do people do what they do? Think what they think? What drives a person to run a 5K? I don't know. I don't have that desire. But someone else can tell me.
 
9. Curiosity is something that we can develop and it will enrich your life.
 
10. One thing you need for curiosity to take hold is an open mind, a mind that seeks out new life, new civilizations, and boldly goes where no one has gone before. Wait, that's Star Trek. The meaning's the same, though.
 
11. You also need to not take things for granted. Look beneath the surface. For example, my blue spruce trees are dying. Why? Because they have a fungus. Why? Because there was a drought period several years ago and they didn't get enough water, and it allowed the fungus to set in. Is the fungus killable? No. We've tried using recommended fungicide but it hasn't helped, and from everything I've read, it was never going to. We tried anyway because we love the trees. If I hadn't been curious about why the trees were dying, I'd never have figured out to try the fungicide in hopes of saving them.
 
12. Always ask questions. I'm sick (again) with a sinus infection. Why am I having recurring sinus infections? Partly because I have a bone spur on my jawbone that is keeping my ear from draining properly, setting up a location for infection to settle. Can I fix that (not without surgery)? Are there other reasons? What else can I do to keep from getting these infections? Are the antibiotics necessary? What other things can I do to keep from feeling like my head is stuff in a closet? I'm heading out to the pharmacy soon to see what else I can find.

13. Curiosity is the reason we have stories. When you ask someone how their day was, you want to hear their story because you're curious about their life, what they are doing with themselves, and how they are spending their time.

Be curious. Don't put labels on things. Read a lot of all kinds of things, even things you don't think you're interested in. Learn something new.

Are you a curious person? I really want to know.
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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 550th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.