Curiosity

In my family, it's not all that unusual for a person to simply decide to become an expert in something and suddenly begin researching it.  "I'd like to make our own cider press," someone might announce; or, "You know, I've been watching these stop-motion videos and I'm going to make a Lego stop motion movie."  On the surface of it, the things we decide to do may occasionally seem random, perhaps not entirely productive, and sometimes downright nuts.  I remember one sibling checking out every book the library had on becoming a paramedic and taking all the self tests until they could begin passing them, simply out of curiosity.  Not because they really wanted to become a paramedic, but because they were just interested.  I know other families who do this on a much grander scale than we do.  "I want to put the slate roof on Oma's house," one teenager told his father; and proceeded to do so.  "I think we should get a back-hoe," another said; that family is now expert at building even tricky foundations.

So yesterday when Ben turned around from his computer while I was making dinner and said, "I want to make dandelion wine," I did not bat an eyelash.

"Okay," I said.

Grandma said, "Oh sure.  How are you going to do that?"

"Well, here's a recipe," Ben said.  "You start by picking two quarts of flowers and soaking them for two days."

I reached into the cupboard and brought out our large glass measuring pitcher.  "Here's two quarts," I said.  "Looks like we have plenty of flowers behind the garage."

And off Ben went to gather two quarts of dandelion flowers.

"You don't think he's really going to try to make wine, do you?" Grandma said to me.

"Sure," I said.  "He's got a recipe.  We've got all the ingredients.  Why not?"

"Because that's just..."  She waved a hand and started laughing.  "Nuts."

Okay, yes, it is.  A little bit.  But Ben's had a curiosity about dandelion wine for a long time and if he decides to make it...well, who knows?  Besides settling his curiosity, he might also discover something new and interesting to be used in future endeavors.

Some people have wondered before if I'm just not a very curious person when I'm content to let things happen without my involvement.  That's gotten me wondering if I'm not really a very curious person; but I've come to the conclusion that my brand of curiosity involves pursuing things that you find fascinating without bothering about that fact that normal people do not go pick all the dandelion flowers in their yard to make wine out of them.  Ben is even more curious than I am.  If something catches his attention, he does not let go of it until he has satisfied his curiosity about it; and he is curious about many, many things I take for granted.  That's why he wasn't content to keep on not knowing if he believed in God or not but set out to determine..."Does God exist and should I believe in him?"  You would not believe the library he acquired in the meantime.

We'll have to see how the dandelion wine goes.  It'll be done next May sometime.  And yes, I promised Ben that if he makes it, I will taste it with him.