Five Curious Things I Learned This Week

 

Notes from a Curious Retirement

Curiosity is how I keep growing. It's about continuing to notice, wonder, question, and care. I think we become old not when we reach a certain age, but when we stop being curious or stop caring. 

1. "Jumping the Shark" Has a Much Bigger Meaning Than I Realized

I'd never heard the expression, Jumping the Shark, until I read an explanation on wordsmarts.com. Apparently, it came from an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis. It is now meant as an expression of a series that is going downhill, possibly by adding gimmicks rather than substance. 

2. Some Civil War Photographs Show the War Better Than Words

While watching Ken Burns' The Civil War, I saw a photograph, unlike anything I'd ever seen, of an enslaved man wearing an iron punishment device. It looked like the man was wearing the bottom half of a metal chair around his head. It made me wonder how the Civil War would have progressed if everyone had seen the photos I was seeing of the death and destruction. Vietnam was real to us because of nightly tv and we weren't even fighting our friends and family. Sometimes one photograph is worth a thousand words. 

3. One Decision About Inheritance Helped Preserve England's Great Houses

I love pictures of the magnificent English estates still in existence. The answer probably lies in primogeniture—the custom of leaving everything to the oldest son. It was often unfair to families, yet it also prevented great estates from being divided into smaller pieces generation after generation. History is full of solutions that solved one problem while creating another.

4. History Is Often a Choice Between Terrible Options

Watching a documentary about Hiroshima and the end of World War II reminded me that history isn't always about choosing between good and bad. Sometimes leaders are faced with two terrible choices. When you watch a documentary with real photos and real people explaining their view from each side, you don't come away with a decision of how it should have been, but by the hopelessness of what the situation really was at that moment.

5. Martha Stewart and Curiosity 

Before there were influencers, there was Martha Stewart. She built an empire by noticing little things that made everyday life a little richer, then sharing them with the rest of us. She had a simple way of ending many of those moments: "It's a good thing."

I've always liked that. Curiosity works the same way. Every week I wander down a few rabbit trails and come back with something that makes me smile, think, or see the world a little differently. I'd call that... a good thing.

What curious thing did you learn this week?