we are curious creatures

Pluto and Us

we are curious creatures

with the potential to see puzzles all around us

and to use questions as keys to riddle open these gifts,

we come to consciousness ignorant of what’s around us

and ignorant of language as a tool to find out,

as we learn to differentiate what’s before us

we can learn to see insects and acorns as treasures,

our grandson at that stage now,

curiosity is inherent in who we are

and drives us as scientists,

we can value revealed truth

even when it’s unexpected,

maybe particularly when it’s unexpected,

school, culture, hard knocks can dull our sharpness

and we can lose the drive to question:

to ask “why?” “how?” “what?” “when?”

these days too much of us can be myopic, narcissistic,

instead I celebrate the part of us that near a decade ago

sent the New Horizons spacecraft to visit Pluto,

the last planet in our solar system

to get such a questioning visit from us,

from a spacecraft traveling a million miles a day,

right now the signals from our cameras fly toward us,

taking 4.5 hours at light speed 

to cross a large gulf of 3 billion miles,

why should we care about Pluto?

why? because the primate primal in us

used that quizzical stance

to learn to start becoming more 

than cogs in evolution’s machine,

why? because the part of us worth our salt 

loves to learn we’re ignorant

because then we can learn,

why? because the two year old in us,

fascinated by a bug, now has potential tools 

to reach questions across the universe,

knowing about Pluto puts no food on the table,

however knowing about Pluto enlarges us

to know the universe, and thus ourselves, better,

we are curious creatures

and forget to ask questions at the peril of who we are 

if we are to be at our best.

by Henry H. Walker

July 14, ’15

Planet Earth

note: I use “planet” to name Pluto the way planetologists do, 

not “dwarf planet” the way the International Astronomical Union decreed.  

Czech the story.

image courtesy of Google Images