C is for ..

...Little Miss Curious.

The proverbial expression 'curiosity killed the cat', is usually used when attempting to stop someone asking unwanted questions. The frequent rejoinder is 'satisfaction brought it back'. I have a question though, how fine is the line between being nosy and being curious.

Have you ever wondered why we are naturally curious? Curiosity is the Christopher Columbus in all of us, sailing beyond the horizon of our understanding to bring back potatoes from new worlds of knowledge. They say curiosity killed the cat, but it also made its other eight lives far more enjoyable. Dogs are also naturally curious but are only really interested in smells. Humans are curious about virtually everything except smells.

Curiosity is pushing buttons, turning corners and opening doors for no other reason than to see what happens - 75% of accidents occur as a direct result of curiosity, especially trying to answer the questions, "Can I reach that?" and, "How does that work?"

There is a fine line between an inquiring mind and a big nose. Nosy parkers are mostly interested in other people's business, armed with the pathetic excuse that they don't know whether or not it's their business until they've had a sniff around. Like nymphomania, curiosity can never be satisfied. Answering one question always leads on to another, like a never-ending game of passing the parcel.

Curiosity is one of the main motors of the internet today. If people didn't have so many questions, it wouldn't provide so many answers. Curiosity also means the rejection of face value. In cultures where face is important, curiosity and questioning are not encouraged. The scientific revolution took place in Europe largely because of inherent nosiness and lack of respect for the opinions of others.

You can measure how curious you are by how many questions you ask. Some people manage to live blissfully without ever asking who, why, when, where or how. The advanced form of curiosity is to be very interested in what fate serves up to you without asking a lot of questions beforehand. This doesn't normally happen because curiosity and patience rarely go hand in hand. Why not? Good question.