What does pistachio ice cream taste? 

How does a steam locomotive turn water and coal into power?
What makes the volcanic stone in Arequipa, Peru so light?

How does a mom’s lipstick look on her daughter’s mouth? 

Why does Grandpa walk with a limp? 

People of all ages have all kinds of questions. 

Sailors wonder where they are in a big ocean. The sextant was invented to tell sailors where on earth their ship is. 

When your mom takes a dress to the fitting room, she will find out how it fits her. 

Curiosity is the result of an unknown thing in your life that you want to know about. 

Some things don’t deserve our curiosity, like how it feels to hit the thumb with a hammer. 

I know what that feels like. I didn’t want to know, but I’ve found out anyway, many times. 

Barton knew how to manage his curiousity into safe endeavors, when he had the option.

But he also knew what it was like to get tangled in a harness full of horses.

Sometimes life throws us into things we know nothing about, but we learn in the midst of the event, like in cage ball.

People, especially young men, have done a lot of unwise things just to see what it was like, 

and then spent time in the hospital or in prison. 

Some things we can know, at the proper time in life. 

I drove a brand-new vehicle at age 22, when I bought it from a car dealer.  Nice feeling.

If I had done that at age 16, it would have been car-theft. 

Different ages bring different opportunities. 

There are many people that could walk down the street with $1,000 in their pocket. 

Some of them would be legal, because it is their own money. 

Others could do this only if they robbed a bank.  Bad choice.

Some curiosities are very high-risk. Consider mountain climbing. 

About 400 people have died trying to climb the two tallest climbing mountains – Mt. Everest and K2. 

(The photo is of the Matterhorn, which I think is the coolest looking mountain)

Curiously, most fatalities occur on the descent, because the climbers used all their energy going up.

But even coming down a tall mountain is also  lot of work.  (and avalanches play a big part too)

All curiosity involves some risk, but ask yourself if the benefit of succeeding is worth the possible loss from failure. 

This is called risk management, and is an important adult life-skill.

Eric J. Rose 

middlegrademysteries.com 

photo: gearjunkie.com