Imagine you are on a holiday.
The place is new and you have never been here before. The people, their culture and the environment are all new. You start to have fun. You explore, you make friends and you are ever curious. Sometimes your wanderings tire you out but you don't mind. You go to sleep with a smile and sleep like a log. You wake up fresh and continue where you left off.
You learn about things, you discover amazing things. Amazing in your mind because you are curious and eager to drink it all.
Then you settle down. Stop being a guest and become a local, thinking you will grow roots here. Aim for permanence perhaps. You start planning for your future and that's a sure shot curiosity-dampener.
You stop observing because you are now living in the future, not the here and now. You take people around you for granted because you think you know them. You start to think you have seen it all and there is nothing further to see here. You want to control your experiences by plotting out a future. You develop a shell thicker than that of a tortoise and you slow down, grow old, get sick and die.
The moment before your death, you recollect your past and it feels like childhood is the best time of your life. Why? Because that's when you were most enthusiastic about everything around you. You were really interested to observe, to experience, to be in the here and now. You did not care about the future and for all intents and purposes, the past was non-existent in your mind.
What happened after childhood? Why did we stop acting like guests on holiday in a great place?
The place is new and you have never been here before. The people, their culture and the environment are all new. You start to have fun. You explore, you make friends and you are ever curious. Sometimes your wanderings tire you out but you don't mind. You go to sleep with a smile and sleep like a log. You wake up fresh and continue where you left off.
You learn about things, you discover amazing things. Amazing in your mind because you are curious and eager to drink it all.
Then you settle down. Stop being a guest and become a local, thinking you will grow roots here. Aim for permanence perhaps. You start planning for your future and that's a sure shot curiosity-dampener.
You stop observing because you are now living in the future, not the here and now. You take people around you for granted because you think you know them. You start to think you have seen it all and there is nothing further to see here. You want to control your experiences by plotting out a future. You develop a shell thicker than that of a tortoise and you slow down, grow old, get sick and die.
The moment before your death, you recollect your past and it feels like childhood is the best time of your life. Why? Because that's when you were most enthusiastic about everything around you. You were really interested to observe, to experience, to be in the here and now. You did not care about the future and for all intents and purposes, the past was non-existent in your mind.
What happened after childhood? Why did we stop acting like guests on holiday in a great place?
