Curiosity, Confusion, and Courage “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” -- Dorothy Parker
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confusion as he wondered what the mold was, how it seemed to kill the bacteria, and if it might be useful. His confusion created the determination to follow his curiosity and resulted in life-saving Penicillin Recently in my wanderings, I’ve noticed some granary trees that appeared abandoned. Curiosity. Why would a woodpecker expend all that effort to create a storage system
lizabeth Lesser, author and founder of Omega Institute, talked with Tim Ferriss (podcast) about her childhood and stated, “I was just massively confused and massively curious.” For some reason that combination of curious and confused struck me. Curiosity is s basic part of my nature, therefore understandable ... but confused? Empty Granary Is that a positive thing? It took awhile to see confusion as a driver, the emotional element for thousands of acorns and then that lifts curiosity from a passing abandon it I wondered? Confusion. thought to a provider of energy and Querying the internet didn’t determination. produce any answers although I There are many stories about assumed that the experts knew why invention that illustrate the this happened. More confusion. interaction between curiosity and Finally, deciding that confusion. For instance, Alexander I wanted to include the Fleming returned from vacation in question in this volume of 1928 to find mold growing in a Petri The Granary Tree, I sent out dish of staphylococcus. He might queries to a few experts have just wondered why the mold and discovered that there had a bacteria-free circle around is a third component to itself as he dropped the dish into this cycle: courage. It takes the trash. In which case, he might courage to act on our never have won the Nobel Prize in confusion, to direct our Physiology or Medicine in 1945. curiosity toward interesting However, his curiosity turned into questions which might lead
to significant end results. In my case it was a thimbleful of courage; however, for Fleming and others like him, it was boldly courageous to risk his career as well as years of time and energy to follow his confusion and curiosity. So far, I haven’t received an answer about the abandoned granary trees although I have developed some theories: 1. Since the trees continue growing, perhaps at some point the holes fill in or are somehow not satisfactory to the woodpeckers. 2. It takes about eight years to create a granary tree. Maybe the woodpeckers grow old and abandon the trees. Or something happens to the family that created the tree. 3. Or, maybe woodpeckers are granary tree “creators” not “remodelers,” always off to new trees and challenges. One of the helpful responses I received was from Kate Marionchild ... the woman who originally prompted this learning journey into granary trees. Her book launched a lot of curiosity and thinking about the oak woodland that is my part-time home. What are you confused and curious about?
