Cats are curious, and Baxter is no exception. He loves to explore anything that isn’t part of the normal routine of his world. If the furniture is rearranged, he has to walk all around it and know where every piece is placed. If there is a new sound in the air, he runs to find its source and decide whether or not it is friendly. If strangers come into his space, he comes out to see what they look like; he rubs against them to mark them for himself; then he hopes to con them into feeding him to win a friend forever in Baxter. Baxter wants to know who and what is in his world, and what is going on beyond the ordinary routines of his cat life. Nothing escapes his notice and his sniff test to determine if it is friend or foe, food or just fuzz balls.
Curiosity is Baxter’s way of making sure that nothing escapes his notice or his control. He wants his world to be within the boundaries that he has set with the objects and people he has placed there. That way he can try to eliminate any surprises that may disturb and disrupt his life. Keep a hold on everything, and nothing will escape and threaten your comfortable existence.
We are curious creatures also. We want to know what is going on, how it works, who is involved, what is behind the obvious facts. On the one hand, this drive to know more is a good thing. It spurs new developments in human knowledge and the life style we develop from these. If no one ever wondered how human cells work, many devastating diseases would still be menacing our lives. If no one ever thought about micro waves and storing information on silicon chips, the world of the internet and cell phones and all that comes with them would never have been possible. If we don’t ponder the great mysteries of life—from where did it all come, why do we suffer, what happens after death—the meaning of our lives will remain shallow and devoid of the weightier questions that lead us to the mystery of God and our own lives. Curiosity is the engine that drives our minds and hearts to grow in comprehending the fullness of life.
On the other hand, however, we can misuse our inquisitiveness. We snoop into places we don’t belong with little regard for what we are doing. When science is not directed by appropriate respect for the objects of its study, we can do things that are unethical and justify them in the name of free inquiry. Some stem cell research, death dealing comfort drugs, mineral extraction technology, and even cyberspace data collection reflect this distortion of our human desire to know. Closer to home, our curiosity sometimes leads us into areas of other people’s lives where we have no right to go. We try to get private information that we share with others for no other purpose than to tear down another’s character and reputation. We justify our twisted inquiries by neutral terms like “idle gossip” or “small town news”, but they are really calumny and slander. This kind of dark knowledge makes us feel important in our own eyes and sometimes in the eyes of those who listen to it. Like Baxter’s drive to know everything that’s going on in his world, it’s a way to control and manipulate others’ lives. We use information like a weapon that threatens and confines people for our purposes.
An old saying reads, “Curiosity killed the cat.” The misuse of our God-given and wonderful desire to know our world and each other in it will kill our souls and warp our understanding with sinister and selfish motives behind it. So explore, wonder, ask questions, investigate but do so for the good of others and our world. Any other reason is not worthy of you, others or the God who planted the seed of our curiosity when He made us.
