I am neither clever nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious. – Albert Einstein
A very good friend once said to me that the only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance while remaining stupid. It compelled me to read, listen, observe, watch and study and ask (stupid) questions unashamedly. I learned to be curious, even to what my children and grandchildren say. They do know more and smarter than me. It’s quite humbling. Mel Gibson said it well -“Hugging your cactus long enough, you become a man of humility.”
Intellectual curiosity is a person’s willingness and desire to learn new things and dig deeper beneath the surface.
Intellectual curiosity makes learning a much more natural processing, instead of just a duty or a chore.
There’s always that someone in your life who incessantly contradict you each time you say something. It can be frustrating but it can also be a learning process. It depends on your perspective. Some of the time they’re right. Actually they’re just bullies.
What makes a person so negative and self-righteous?
Psychology says, •Negativity is a thinly disguised cry for help—to feel respected, loved, and in control.
Dealing with negative people requires compassion, taking responsibility for one’s own happiness, and maturity.
Finding it difficult to deal with others’ negativity suggests that there is a seed of negativity in oneself. I had to look inward for that seed of negativity in my soul. I knew that if there is a seed there I must release it and find healing and to forgive myself for believing I gotta be better than … I need to accept all of me, warts and all, –A long process of maturity, to realize that I have everything I need.
Negativity is also a sign of envy and jealousy. Someone writes, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”
Oxford defines envy: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
Envy is evil, an incredibly dangerous and destructive and immoral. We need to completely get rid of it! The antidote to envy and strife is to count your blessings and be grateful for what you’ve got. And give, and give generously.
What Robert Downey, Jr., said in his award acceptance speech moved me. “I asked Mel (Gibson) to present me this award because when I couldn’t get sober he urged me not to give up hope. He told me to find my faith, not necessarily his, but find my own as long as it is rooted in forgiveness. And he cast me in a lead of a movie he was preparing for himself and kept a roof over my head and food on the table… (Google it and watch it on YouTube…it was epic).