11. Curiosity!

Driven by inborn curiosity, my twin grandson’s, Parker Kuanalu and Hayden Kaipo’i Noland are caught white-handed, creating their first artistic masterpiece utilizing Tempura Flour, their medium of choice.

Magnetic Pull
If vision is the destination and risk-takings are the compass points, then curiosity is the built-in magnetic force always pulling and pointing the Geneses person forward toward “something new.”

We inherited the pull; it’s in our genes, been there from the very beginning. Ask Adam and Eve. This is not meant to be a theological treatise, but it has something to do with that pesky free will thing. God said, “No!” to one forbidden fruit and “Yes!” to tree loads of other sumptuous fruit and vegetables in the garden.

Might Have Been
I wonder what might have been had God’s first-born channeled their curiosity toward all the good stuff, mango, papaya, spinach? Think about it. It’s a picture perfect day in Paradise, balmy, 80° weather, hammock’s strung, Eve turns to Adam and says, “I’m thirsty, enough with that boring, plain old spring-fed water. Let’s experiment with something new.”

Walking through the garden she pulls down a coconut and plucks a pineapple from the plant. Tempting Adam she says, “I wonder what these two would taste like mixed together?” The juice of the pineapple is squeezed into the coconut milk while still in its shell, a slice of pineapple inserted decoratively and “Voila!” Pina Colada, virgin style of course. It is the first of many innovative recipes yet to be created.

But that’s not the way it might have happened, all because they chose to focus on the “No!” instead of the “Yes!”

Man-Made Lines
Today we will baby-sit our eighteen-month-old twins who are double trouble, curiosity two-fold in constant motion. I find myself wanting to say that creative diminishing word, “No!” all too often. Knowing of its mostly harmful effects, I bite my tongue…most of the time. In my carefully programmed humanness, it slips out every once in awhile, and I cringe the moment its perfectly shaped oval forms on my lips. Doubly cringing as I pull their tiny little fingers out of the electric socket. Or rescue them from toilet bowl baptisms. Or pluck them out of the clothes dryer. In doing so, indiscriminately, we crush their inborn curious, creative spirits until that old nemesis, conformity, becomes habit forming.

We have been programmed to insist that our children color within institutionally driven, man-made lines, and when curiosity starts to pull them beyond those boundaries, we suck them back into the safety of our status quno wombs quickly, efficiently and protectively. God forbid they create a flour-strewn masterpiece with walls, floors and bodies their creative, experimental canvases. “Nooooo!”

The Exception
Obviously, the “No’s!” are there for a purpose (the electric socket being one discriminate example), but from the beginning meant to be the exception rather than the rule. Jesus came to correct that misrepresentation, but in our free will humanness, we keep reverting back to the rule with proliferating fervor. Result: Status quno thinking instead of Genesis thinking. For God’s sake, let’s not demagnetize the pull!

The Curiosity Habit
Following is the curiosity recipe for Genesis thinking:

1. Resist the curiosity nemesis. One part concentration is a key ingredient here. First is getting the right concentration (mix) of yeses and no’s. “No!” is the nemesis and must become the exception rather than the rule. How can we correct this recipe imbalance?
2. Develop the curiosity habit. Another form of concentration is added to the mix: meditation. Begin to focus on the yeses instead of the no’s: contemplation.
3. Exercise the curiosity muscle. A third part of concentration is repetition. The more you exercise it, the more natural it becomes and soon curiosity turns into an unconscious pattern of behavior.

Concentration: 1. the direction of all thought or effort toward one particular task, idea, or subject 2. a large number of things or amount of something collected together in one area 3. the amount of a substance dissolved in another – Encarta World English Dictionary.

Habit: A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition - The Free Dictionary.

Relax. Give way to curiosity’s magnetism and you will begin to discover the Genesis person within. Mary Stillwell gave way to the “pull” and “something new” followed in her wake all up and down the West Coast of America.

Cyberspace Link: The animated song, “Upside Down,” from the movie, Curious George (the Genesis primate). Listen carefully to the words and apply them to the theme captured in this chapter: “Who’s to say what’s impossible and can be found, I don’t want this feeling to go away. As my mind begins to spread its wings, there’s no stopping curiosity. I want to turn the whole thing upside down. I’ll find the things they say can’t be found.”

10. Risk!

Mary (Matthews) Stillwell was a risk-taking, Genesis pioneer, obediently venturing her way westward, even in the face of great uncertainty - and, oh so young.

If passion is the fuel and vision the destination, risk-takings are the compass points that help chart the course. Trial and error is an essential component of Genesis thinking and progress, with adjustments and course corrections required periodically along the way.

When there is risk involved, the conditioned response is to say, “No!” There can be no pioneering spirit without a healthy dose of “Say Yes!” risk-taking. Say what? Without it the wheels will spin, going nowhere, and that’s called status quno.

Every time Jesus said “No!” to law and “Yes!” to love, those were risk-taking compass points. When Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg that was a critical compass point. When Catherine said, “Never!” that was a ministry-changing point. When William said, “Yes!” to “Salvation” Army, military nomenclature, uniform wearing, et al, those represented course correction points. Without these risk-taking compass points, three movement making, inyesvative ventures would never have been undertaken.

Venture: an undertaking that is dangerous, daring, or of uncertain outcome – The Free Dictionary.

This is not meant to be an historical treatise; that’s already been written by someone more disciplined, detailed and astute than I am. For illustrative purposes only, allow me to outline a few seminal historical facts, letting your fertile imaginations fill in the blanks. Needless to say, it took a special breed of risk-taking pioneer to tame the West.

Fact 1: In 1882 Booth sent 24-year-old Irish Major Alfred Wells to establish Salvation Army headquarters in San Francisco “and sally forth daily and do battle with the sin and the devil.” Concurrently, Captain Henry Stillwell was sent likewise all the way to San Jose. Both left brides-to-be behind.

Fact 2: In 1884, two years later mind you, the two brides-to-be, Captains Polly Medforth and Mary Matthews arrived. The journey required a grueling ocean voyage and rugged, uncomfortable nine-day cross-country train trip.

Fact 3: Mary had been engaged to Stillwell for five years, while Polly had known Wells only a few days before his departure to America. Three short days after their arrival the two couples celebrated a double wedding. Four days later, the Stillwell’s commenced The Salvation Army work in Oakland, California.

Fact 4: In 1886, a convert migrating to Oregon petitioned London for officers. Henry, now in charge of San Francisco, was unable to answer the call. Guess what? Mary, with a ten-month-old baby, went solo, opening fire in Portland, Bible’s blazing Wild West style. Opposition was fierce, with Mary herself badly injured during a “shoot out,” when a saloonkeeper turned a fire hose on her, this in response to her “fire-a-volley!” Gospel shots.

Fact 5: Transatlantic ocean liner travel was rugged at best: no electricity, running water or portholes. Steam engine locomotion, prehistoric by today’s standards, was only a step beyond wagon train travel. It was indeed the “Wild West” they encountered, where lawlessness, disorder and dishonesty reigned with the likes of Pancho Villa, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, the Dalton Gang, Black Bart, Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch preying on banks, trains, and stagecoaches.

For the risk-taking part, I’ll let you fill in the blanks. There is no denying that their ventures were dangerous and daring undertakings, uncertain of what the outcomes would be.

Risk-taking: Saying “Yes!” in the face of danger and uncertainty – Noland.

Booth outlined TSA venture clearly when he observed, "Beginning as I did with a clean sheet of paper, wedded to no plan... willing to take a leaf out of anybody's book... above all, to obey the direction of the Holy Spirit... we tried various methods and those that did not answer we unhesitatingly threw overboard and adopted something else.”

There is nothing traditional or status quno about his modeled venturesome spirit. Trial and error is an essential component of Genesis thinking. The Genesis person is no stranger to uncertainty and risk-taking: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way.”

Cyberspace Link: A humorous, creative rendition of William Booth’s venturesome spirit - points Westward: Hang Ten in Hawaii.