Peace & curiosity... & magic & dreams & good madness...

A couple nights ago I watched the last half of a show on PBS, First Peoples: Asia.

It was fascinating. This mix of humanoids: Denisovans of 42,000 years ago and Neanderthals of 70,000 years ago and their still identifiable DNA in humans of today and the percentages of that DNA that vary among the different peoples around the earth.

As the show ended and displayed a map with moving arrows and lines tracking how humans moved to populate the planet, I wondered.

 Why? Why did our ancestors move like that? Was it for survival? Or was it curiosity about what lies beyond?
We've pretty much covered the Earth. We have changed Its landscapes. Now we are after Her Oceans and the Moon and Mars and Beyond. 
Is it an instinctual survival mechanism that moves us? Or is it curiosity, just to see what is on the other side? Or is it greed, wanting more, the drive to conquer?

Moon and Mars and Beyond brought to mind The Martian, which I have now seen 15 times. That's somewhat embarrassing to admit. The DVD comes out on January 12, 2016. Yes, I'm going to buy it. :D

People-groups moving to populate the planet brought to mind my and Hubby's trip this past April to the Palatki Ruins near Sedona, Arizona, and the five-to-six-thousand-year-old petroglyphs and pictographs on the Red Rock walls, and the cliff-dwellers that once occupied the area. Looking it up online to refresh my thinker, I read that the Singua Indians inhabited the region from the 500s into the 1400s and then "mysteriously left" the area. It is not known why they left. Perhaps drought; perhaps enemies. 1400 AD isn't that long ago, comparatively speaking. How much of a role did curiosity play in their decision to relocate?

I thought of my bicycle day-trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway on December 16, 2015. And how, just out of curiosity, I took a side road.

It was a gravel road and just kind of called to me. I rode it to the end because I just wanted to see, what's down here? A couple miles later, I discover that I am 7 miles from where I'd parked Edward, my gray, 1999, Ford Explorer.

By the time I got back to Edward after riding two different Blue Ridge Mountain roads and the Parkway; after waving at and hollering my howdies to cows in three different pastures as they looked up from grazing and chewed while observing the happy-human-on-two-spinning-tires; after riding past three barking dogs at three different houses; after stopping at a stranger's home and inquiring of the inhabitants if the road I was riding intersected the Parkway; after concentrating my focus as a few cars and an 18-wheeler zoomed by me on that curvy mountain road; after having the momentary companionship of four deer galloping through a field beside me for 30 seconds which felt like three minutes and then bounding across the road in front of me as I watched the white underside of their tails disappear into the woods and wondering how those tails stay so white and simultaneously being enthralled with the sunset displaying Its hues of creams and purples and pinks and blues as the cold wind hit my cheeks while I rode the Parkway empty of cars on an unusual straight stretch, all so reminiscent of when Hubby and I road the Grand Canyon at sunset back in April...

By the time I got back to Edward, the sun having set, I had ridden 16.5 unplanned, beautiful, magical, unbelievable miles with my bike, Olivia. It was the perfect ride.

All because I was curious.

Almost every day, I read the news. My interests include politics, health, entertainment, climate, technology, and science. I don't read all those categories every day; I pick and choose. This morning while reading an article written by Sasha Stone entitled From Darkness to Light, I was stopped by the quote below. I wanted to write down some thoughts which have turned into this blog piece. I haven't even finished reading the article yet. I'll have to do that later, maybe as late as tomorrow.

In the article, Stone compares Ridley Scott's The Martian to another Ridley Scott film, Alien.

"...Alien is about fear of the unknown, fear of outer space and science. The Martian about the opposite of fear: curiosity. It is a celebration of science above all, and a tribute to our ever-inquisitive humanity..."

I think of what I've been living the past 4-1/2 years as I've tried to figure out how to keep my body functioning and limbs working. Part of my mindset has become that of curiosity. 

What will happen if I try this? [to help heal and/or relieve such-and-such symptom/side effect]

I try whatever-it-is. And I observe. And I take notes. It has become my full-time job. There is a kind of detachment from the process, as detached as one can be when experimenting on oneself.

~*~*

For the New Year I wish us all...
A curiosity that adds richness and purpose to life, that leads to wonderful discoveries.

I wish us all...

Peace.

And I wish us all...

"Magic and dreams and good madness..." (Neil Gaiman, 2001)

By the way, the deer and the squirrel could care less if it's a new year. They have a different kind of calendar. I think they care more about seasons, one day at a time.