Curiosity

I'm awfully vexed now, just one huge fury! So I'm going to be harsh – it's a warning, mind you, and I'm being dead serious now!

Who said it? One of ancient Greek guys, I believe. Something like "Public only needs bread and entertainment". Well, "entertainment" is not correct. "Spectacularity" is closer, but I have strong doubts that such a word exists. Well, now it does.

Anyway, only simple straightforward easily apprehensible things that can be served, consumed and digested here and now leaving no trace either in heart or soul or mind. And that never fails to distress and upset me, at times even drive mad.

Why, but why don’t they want to scratch even a bit underneath the surface, to have a hard, good look at things with not only eyes, but engaging their head into the process as well, to ponder, speculate even if a bit, to step just an inch beyond the limits of the seen and heard? I say “want”, not “can” or something because it is all only about unwillingness, not inability - of that I’m sure. My beloved Sherlock is handy, as always – (grumpily) “You see, you just do not observe!” (it's brought up - I must, simply must write about Sherlock-Cumberbatch someday; being as gorgeous as he is – hard to say where more so, inwards or outwards - he's well worth being devoted the entire blog to, not a mere note, for sure, but still). At all events, in relation to what I'm on about now, I'll take the liberty to paraphrase him – You can, you are just lazy!

Hm... Perhaps that is the reason? People just feel lazy to give an extra thought to anything that does not concern them personally? Well, laziness is something hidden deep in genes, no doubt; a sort of an in-built mechanism protecting against making too much effort that eventually leads to getting burnt out or mentally destroyed. Being reasonable and pragmatic, our body is opposed to the very idea of such an unhappy ending, so it makes us, at the subconscious level probably, keep a low profile whenever possible. It goes for moving both limbs and brain cells. So it turns out – as long as it all is basically the Nature's doing – that we people are exempt from shouldering any blame whenever we botch things up due to our laziness? So it seems... How fucking comfortable is it to have someone or something to pass the buck to, isn't it?))

It was Gogol who said it, wasn't it? - “Every one of us has one worst enemy, unbeatable and immensely powerful, but for which we could each be giants – Laziness”...

Funny, I don't feel like that one huge fury any longer. And the thing that'd set up my back is even funnier; in fact, looking back, it looks nothing but ridiculously silly. Here it is.

Just a couple of hours ago. A huge two-me-height matryoshka made of tiny blocks at the entrance to a Lego shop. It looked fantastic, - colourful, unusual, catching eye and numerous passers-by taking its photo. Apparently, it had been done manually, and as a person who has to deal with Lego stuff on daily basis (I’ll leave the detailed description of how this, erm, fascinating process influences my underdeveloped brain for another story, “Maddening Blocks” I’ll call it) I couldn’t just leave it alone. A sort of professional interest, probably. How many blocks were there altogether? Had the pieces been put together right there where that gigantic doll was subsequently put at display or elsewhere? Who'd assembled it? How long had the process taken up? And what? Was my curiosity satisfied or even one of the questions answered? No way. The shop assistants just indifferently shrugged their shoulders and carried on exploring the Internet’s nothing on their phones. I called the manager. I won’t continue… What made me boil with rage (in my mind's eye only, thankfully; we - angry shrieking ladies - look so disgustingly abominable, you know) is that no one made even a slightest move - either with asses or brain insides (I do hope they have ones, I truly do) - to get to the answer. Even if just out of mere interest, not to mention elementary politeness to a female Scarecrow (pouting now) - oh, and a potential client to boot.

After all, curiosity, inquisitiveness, thirst for knowledge, whatever we put it down as – even if on ordinary everyday level, let’s leave alone some global studying now – are one of the major forces that have made the world as it is, haven’t they? Take Archimedes and his bath. Or Da Vinci, Einstein, Tolstoy – they all must have been damn nosy, I bet! And where would we be without their incessant - even if though over the top perhaps - willingness to peep behind the curtains? Not convincing? Ok now, I've got something else here up my sleeve – think about Eva and that Forbidden fruit. Huh? Mm, a controversial example, I admit, but what she did was done out of pure interest too, and no one will argue that that act of misbehavior of hers definitely gave quite a sharp turn to the entire being of the humanity.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning”. I can't remember whose these words were, but I won't stop, I promise!)

I have something to ask now, by the by. Is it possible to calculate somehow the amount of energy one generates when writing - real energy, in joules (by typing solely, leaving brain work aside)? There must be some formula how to get it, mustn't there? The thing is I'm dying to know how much pancakes I could fry using this amount of energy (in case I for once in my life I pluck up enough courage to cook that). What a thrilling night I'm going to have mulling it over!

P.S. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious” (Albert Einstein). What right a guy he was!