Too often we fail to pause for clarification, thinking that we understand something before we do. In doing so, we miss the opportunity to grasp the f… - James E. Ryan

Couldn’t we at least talk it through, and talk about what it would mean for our family?

Learning these stories will inevitably enrich your life. It might even lengthen it. Curiosity, it turns out, is conducive to health and happiness, as scores of social scientists have documented. Curious people, not surprisingly, are likely to learn more and to retain more of what they learn. Curious people are likely to be more attractive to others, as people are attracted to those who seem interested in them. Curiosity also leads to empathy, an emotion that seems in short supply today. Curious people are likely to be healthier, and to experience less anxiety in particular, because they see new situations as an opportunity to learn rather than an opportunity to realize that they don’t know enough. Curious people are also, according to some studies, likely to live longer, presumably because they are more engaged with the world around them.

For whatever reason, most people, I have noticed, tend to become less curious about the world as they age. It may be that their curiosity was not sufficiently encouraged by parents or teachers, who can become weary of the “why” question.