In Defense of Curiosity

 

Baltimore public radio station WYPR has an ongoing feature entitled The Maryland Curiosity Bureau. Hosted by Aaron Henkin, it encourages listeners to send in their questions about unanswered Maryland mysteries, such as:

• How did jousting become Maryland’s official state sport?
• What’s the deal with Pit Beef?
• What’s Baltimore’s Negro Leagues baseball history?

There’s a process in which questions are solicited from listeners, are put up for a vote from the listening public, and then the winners are researched and presented on WYPR. I think it’s an engaging project and I’ve learned a lot by following along.

If there were actually a physical place called the Maryland Curiosity Bureau, or a physical set for a television show, one can imagine tables and shelves crammed with assorted Maryland oddities and souvenirs. Filing cabinets would be overflowing with old newspapers and assorted ephemera, and the staff lounge would be well stocked with Berger cookies, Smith Island cake, and Old Bay.

I love the name more than anything else. It brings to mind old school “cabinets of curiosities”, with a bit of Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus thrown in. I wish I had thought of it. Or, rather, I wish there were a Columbia Curiosity Bureau. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

It’s very likely that the Columbia Archives really is our Columbia Curiosity Bureau. I tend to think of it as the very respectable repository of significant documentation of the Great Columbia Experiment. And yet the archives probably contain a fair amount of the unusual, humorous, and surprising.  A few weeks ago I stumbled on a bit of Columbia history that I had been completely ignorant of and it was the wackiest, most way-out thing I’ve learned about the place in 23 years.

But that’s another story altogether.

Curiosity is a very good thing. Basically, it is made up of three components: understanding that you don’t know everything, the innate desire and motivation to find out, and the joy of the search/learning something new. At its heart curiousity is openness. When I see people who clearly don’t have that, well? It worries me. For example, when one looks at certain folks - - politicians, television pundits, local activists, angry parent groups, or people who hang out on social media - - that spark is clearly missing. And it’s a very bad sign.

Jen White, host of WAMU’s weekday program 1A, recently did a pledge drive spot that focused on curiousity. It was so compelling that I pledged. In fact, I was so engrossed in what she said that not only did I sit in the parking lot to hear the whole thing, but I also had to re-park my car when it was over. (I’d neglected to pull my car all the way in to the spot.) Public radio isn’t kidding when they talk about “driveway moments”.

If Columbia had a Curiosity Bureau, what would you want to know?