Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Letters to Sara - Curiosity

It has been said that curiosity killed the cat. There are lots of cat fables. Fables are an effort to distill a truth down to a simple lesson that is easy to remember. Whenever something gets simplified, it is easy for the point to be missed or the lesson to take on a different meaning than the intent. That comes from losing the context of the lesson. If you knew the story of the lesson, then you can understand the point more clearly. Curiosity is not something to be avoided. In fact, curiosity about things in life can be very useful. But taking risks to satisfy curiosity can be dangerous. A safer way to satisfy curiosity is to observe others. There is an unlimited supply of people who have tried almost everything life has to offer. We can learn from them. We can avoid many heartaches and pitfalls by doing so. The greatest use of curiosity is to drive us toward education. There is so much more we humans don't know than we know. But the sum of our knowledge is great. It would take many lifetimes to experience it. We can experience life in many ways through learning. There is a great satisfaction in wondering why or how something works, and then learning about it.

Janice Annette Castleberry

  The cousins came to Sylacauga on January 28th to place the ashes of Jan in the Marble City Cemetery beside her parents. The long delay cam...