Hello, readers! Yeah...it’s been a while. I’ve guiltily given you a glimpse of procrastination at its finest. This post was supposed to be published in October as a Halloween special, but then life got busy I guess. I'm going to tell you that my procrastination paid off because it gave me way more time to discuss my ideas with other smart people and form my ideas more clearly. I highly encourage you to share your own thoughts on the particular question I'm going to raise in this post because I think there's a lot to talk about concerning this question. There is still a ton I have not explored, and I would love to hear other opinions and takes on it. Before I give you the question, let me set the scene for you.
For the last few yeas or so, my older brother has shown a variety of horror films throughout the month of October to honor the Halloween holiday. Personally, I am not a fan of scary films. I HATE, HATEEEEE being scared. Whenever I am home alone, I lock all the doors and wear one of my comfort hoodies. But there's something that keeps me going back each year to watch the variety of horror films- and that's curiosity. I LIKE the idea of being scared, but after watching the films, I am terrified. I don’t sleep. Heck, I can’t even shower because I think someone is going to attack me (don't worry, I'm over that now). This year, we watched classic horror films such as Kill Baby, Kill, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, It, Halloween, Psycho, and other ones I’m too afraid to name. As I watched the innocent and not so innocent humans in these films enter eerie houses that looked empty or forbidden caves and whatnot, I wondered, were humans created to be curious?
Now, you would argue that curiosity is a natural part of humans. It’s in our freaking DNA to explore and want what’s beyond the day to day experiences. And I’m going to agree with that 100 percent. Yes, I am. HECK, if no one decided to be curious and jump right into the unknown, we wouldn’t have light bulbs, pop tarts, roller coasters, and all that excellent stuff. However, curiosity causes a very plausible danger when it is blatant that it can cause harm to ourselves and those around us. I believe humans were created to be curious and to use their intellectual abilities to pursue the good. However, when humans leap into situations that have the potential to harm their safety or others, it becomes an issue. When God created humans, we were in freaking paradise. PARADISE. Sin entered into the world because humans were curious. Adam and Eve ate the fruit because they wanted to see what it would be like to BE gods. In paradise, Adam and Eve were given everything, freedom, no pain. All they had to do was to NOT eat the forbidden fruit. But they did. Because of curiosity.
We’re created to be curious, but not in a way that encourages us to explore sketch houses and to eat bad fruit. The toughest decision we have to make sometimes is to figure out which sense we should be guided by. The heart? The head? The stomach? As I mentioned earlier, If curiosity didn’t take charge now and again, we wouldn’t have as many cool inventions and neat-O ideas as we do now. However, if we always lived with the idea that curiosity should be the leader, there wouldn’t be a lot of us left. Growing up, I always thought curiosity was always a good thing. However, lately, I think curiosity needs to be faced with some caution. Sure, read books, question Socrates’ theories, eat sushi. But maybe you should think twice before you go down that sketch alley alone or not enter that scary looking house to find your missing friends. Just as we learn when to let the heart or head lead, we also need to know when to let curiosity take charge and when to take a chill pill. They say that curiosity killed the cat and I am pretty sure it can kill humans, too.