Bishop David Bard encourages us to stay curious, for doing so can help alleviate some of the problems and divisions in our world today…
September is a month memorialized in a variety of songs. “See You in September” is a song about a young couple separated by the long summer holiday: “Will I see you in September or lose you to a summer love?” Another such love song was composed by Carole King and her then-husband Gerry Goffin, “It Might as Well Rain Until September,” expressing the sadness of a couple separated by summer. The Broadway musical The Fantastiks opens with the lovely song, “Try To Remember”: “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow.” If you prefer a song that gets you up off your chair to dance, think Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”: “Do you remember the 21st night of September? Love was changin’ the minds of pretenders while chasin’ the clouds away.”
If you think of songs about the beginning of school, it will add a whole bunch more to the September repertoire. My mind goes quickly to Chuck Berry’s “School Days”: “Up in the mornin’ and out to school. The teacher is teachin’ the Golden Rule. American history and practical math. You study ’em hard and hopin’ to pass.”
It is September, and for many, it is a time to get up in the morning and go to school. For teachers, school administrators, parents, and students, our prayers and good wishes for a wonderful year go with you. I have enjoyed seeing proud parents posting photos of their children heading to school again.
I have a deep appreciation for education. Counting all my years of formal education, including the years writing my doctoral dissertation, I spent twenty-six years going to school.
I enjoy learning. Several years ago, the Gallup organization offered a self-assessment tool called StrengthsFinder to help you discover your strengths. Near the top of my list is a strength called “Learner.” Along with StrengthsFinder, Gallup also developed an employee engagement survey to help gauge workplace satisfaction. Among the important qualities of a workplace that engages its employees is “this last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow.”
Learning. Consider Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge” (NRSVUE). Eugene Peterson’s rendering in The Message says, “Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.”
Learning. Learning should continue even when we graduate, no matter how many times that may be. Learning should not be confined to those like me who have a natural affinity for learning, where learning is a strength. There is in all of us some spark of curiosity that we can and should tend to, a desire to learn, explore, and grow. When we think of the universe’s enormity, isn’t there something in us that desires to know more about it? When we ponder the breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love in Jesus Christ, there is always more to discover (see Ephesians 3:18-20).
As September rolls around, as school begins for many, I invite us to exercise our curiosity. There seems to be a distinct lack of curiosity among too many people today, which is damaging. Ironically, in a world awash in information, too many listen only to things that confirm what we already know. One source of the deep divisions in our society is that we have become very incurious about how other people, whose lives are very different from ours, live. Instead of listening to one another, we play tapes in our heads that tell us we already know these “strangers.” Rapid resort to labeling others extinguishes curiosity.
Being curious won’t overcome all our problems, but it will help. If you live in the city, ask about life in rural areas or small towns. And if you are from a small town, ask what it is like to live in the city. From your own racial-ethnic identity, ask what life might be like for someone different from you. If you were born in the United States, ask what life is like for someone who immigrated here. If you are reading the Bible in a group and someone offers an interpretation that strikes you as off, ask why. You may not agree with them, but you may understand them better. At the heart of our ongoing anti-bias, anti-racism work is a profound encouragement to be curious about the lives of others.
Behind this encouragement to pursue curiosity are some deeply rooted theological notions. I trust that each of us is created in the image of God, and we understand the breadth of God more when we understand our diversity better. I also believe we tend to rely too much on our limited experience. That often puts us in corners that can be difficult to get out of. Rather than say, “I could be helped by seeing the world in some new ways,” we defend our limited perspectives as complete. Instead, the biblical proverb encourages us to stay curious: “Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.”
When we were school children, many of us were asked at dinner time, “What did you learn today?” It remains a good question to ask ourselves often.