Hi, I currently have nine grandchildren who light
up my day. And one reason is they are immensely
curious about everything. One of my favorite
examples was with my oldest grandson, and he
was about five years old. We would watch videos
from Three Blue, One Brown. And these videos
used beautiful animation to explain. advanced
mathematical ideas. Now, my grandson understood
very little of the mathematics, but that did
not bother him one iota. He would watch intently.
He would repeat the words that he heard, point
at the pictures, and ask questions. He was not
intimidated by unfamiliar symbols or strange
names. He simply enjoyed exploring. Well, I think
we all know that children are naturally curious.
They're not trying to achieve anything. They're
not studying for a test. They're simply discovering
the world around them. Curiosity seems to be
built into us. But somewhere along the way, many
of us begin to lose it. School can train us to
focus on getting the right answer. Work can train
us to focus on results. Life can train us to
avoid mistakes. And without realizing it, we
begin replacing curiosity with certainty. We
stop asking questions and start assuming we already
know. So this week, I want to suggest that curiosity
is one of the most important qualities that we
can develop and always pursue. Not because it
helps us accumulate information. but because
it transforms how we see the world. For much
of my life, mathematics was mostly a school subject.
It was a collection of formulas, procedures,
and answers. And then, on my 52nd birthday, my
sister gave me a book called The Music of the
Primes. It's a story about Bernard Riemann and
the greatest unresolved mystery of math. It was
the first math book I read that felt like a story
rather than a textbook. And from this book, I
discovered mathematics was not really a collection
of answers. It was a collection of questions.
What patterns hide inside numbers? Why do some
patterns repeat while others do not? What happens
if we follow an idea further? than anyone has
before. And probably most important, that human
drama of it all was simply fascinating. Bernard
Riemann was absolutely amazing, an incredibly
curious person. So, one book led to another,
and then another. Eventually, mathematics transformed
from a subject into a living tree of connected
ideas. And it all started with curiosity. So
perhaps that's true for many of the best things
in life. Curiosity can kickstart new friendships,
learning, and growth. And from my experience,
curiosity is not something I need to learn. It
is something I need to recover. So will you join
me this week? as we focus on rediscovering our
own curiosity.