02 September 2024

Choosing Curiosity

Listened to Elizabeth Gilbert's On Being interview and there were many of the moments in this conversation that have stayed with me.

This was a few days ago, but still these words and ideas are as if floating by a door, inviting once again to explore them.

I think curiosity is our friend that teaches us how to become ourselves. And it’s a very gentle friend and a very forgiving friend, and a very constant one. Passion is not so constant, not so gentle, not so forgiving, and sometimes. not so available. And so, when we live in a world that has come to fetishize passion above all, there’s a great deal of pressure around that.

Sometimes, following your curiosity will lead you to your passion. Sometimes it won’t; and then, guess what? That’s still totally fine. You’ve lived a life following your curiosity. You’ve created a life that is a very interesting thing, different from anybody else’s. And your life itself then becomes the work of art — not so much contingent upon what you produced, but about a certain spirit of being that, I think, is a lot more interesting, and also, a lot more sustainable.