After many years listening to older people as an Anna Chaplain, one can't help but notice (writes Debbie Thrower) how much curiosity, inquisitiveness, adds to the quality of life post-retirement.
Remaining interested in the world and how it works, and in other people and what makes them tick, brings benefits in old age. Not least because one may remain interesting to others - as a virtuous circle of mutual enjoyment in one another's company is created!
With that in mind, I was intrigued to read one of Terry Martin's occasional essays, entitled 'Curiosity and Wondering':
'Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back'
Given the importance of curiosity as the source of our engagement with the world and each other (Shapiro & Carr, 1991), the lack of curiosity, as a correlate of boredom, is a challenge for both teachers and learners. Boredom can also be seen as a kind of psychological absence, the opposite of psychological presence, which Kahn (1992) suggests means being:
· attentive-open rather than closed to others, not disabled by anxiety, non-defensive
· connected-empathetic, related to others in a situation, accessible
· integrated-grounded, drawing upon different aspects of oneself, not fragmented, experiencing a sense of wholeness, spontaneous
· focused-maintaining the integrity of the person and role simultaneously, staying with the here-and-now
Psychological presence is manifested by physical presence, (eye contact, fullness of speech), cognitive presence and authenticity. Psychological presence is important if effective learning and development is to occur. However, considerable maturity is required to exhibit and sustain psychological presence, hence the importance of helping individuals to develop emotionally.
Cassie Rhodes writes:
Curiosity matters because it leads to deep thinking. Once something captures our attention, we are transfixed, we ask questions, we ponder, we try things and then we re-evaluate how we think. Curiosity can ignite intellectual thought, awaken new perspectives and lead us into a state of flow and even deeper engagement. Curiosity is mindful and far from superficial. Indeed, curious learners are often deep learners too.
Curiosity and wondering are essential for all children. Almost everything they notice comes as a surprise and they become lost in the novelty of it all. In his review of Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age, Sebastian Morello writes:
'I am convinced that the only way to revive the Christian faith', Dreher asserts, 'which is fading fast from the modern world, is not through moral exhortation, legalistic browbeating, or more effective apologetics but through mystery and the encounter with wonder.'
Dreher tells us that 'attention - what we pay attention to, and how we attend -is the most important part of the mindset needed for re-enchantment.'
For Dreher, if we are going to rediscover the world as enchanted - that is, as participating in the life of God, Who is in turn intimately bound up with it everywhere and at all times - we must begin to see the world as it really is. This means turning away from the hall of mirrors that is the modern, insulated self. According to Dreher, freedom from the prison of the self, to enter enchanted reality, not only requires attentive observation of the world in all its marvellous particularity and majesty, but participatory experience of the world. As he puts it:
Re-enchantment is not about imposing fanciful nostalgia onto the world, like coating a plain yellow cake with pastel fondant frosting. Instead, it is about learning how to perceive what already exists and re-establishing participatory contact with the really real. God has already enchanted the world; it is up to us to clear away the scales from our eyes, recognize what is there, and establish a relationship with it.
We need to move from distraction to attraction, from disengaged to engaged and from bored to awed and curious.
References
Dreher, Rod (2024) Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age Hodder & Stoughton
Kahn, W (1992) ‘To Be Fully There: Psychological Presence at Work’ Human Relations 45(4) pp321-349
Rhodes, Cassie (2023) Wonder and Curiosity Wednesday Wisdom | Wonder and Curiosity | Tooled Up Education
Shapiro. E & Carr, W (1991) Lost in familiar places: Creating new connections between the individual and society. Yale University Press, New Haven & London
Terry Martin - is a trustee of the Southampton charity Caraway - 'meeting the spiritual and well-being neds of older people.' https://www.caraway.uk.com/
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