Curiosity
Tomorrow morning I shall be preaching on curiosity. Starting with the likes of Neil Armstrong and Saint Brendan, I shall talk about the way in which a fundamental curiosity is woven into the very DNA of the human race. It is curiosity which makes a baby pull herself up to see what the view is like up there, and it is curiosity which makes an astronaut strap himself into an enormous missile to see what is out there. I believe curiosity is a spiritual blessing too. It is curiosity which made Moses go towards the burning bush rather than away from it. It is curiosity which drew people to Jesus like bees to a flower rich with pollen. It is curiosity which hurled Peter into the water fully clothed to swim to the shore and see if it really was the risen Jesus standing there.
Here’s my dilemma, though. If curiosity is a blessing from God – why did it make Adam pluck the forbidden fruit from the tree? Whilst puzzling on that one, you might like to take a look at the two pictures below. The first was the Apple logo designed in 1976 by Ronald Wayne. It depicts Isaac Newton sitting under a tree with an apple hanging low above his head. The words around the border read “Newton… A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought … Alone.”
Image: edibleapple.com
To my eye the logo looked old-fashioned even when it was new. Within a year it was replaced with the successor which we know so well (see below in its contemporary version). Here’s the thing though – does it strike anyone else that the first is an image of curiosity, and the second one of temptation? Just sayin…
Image: edibleapple.com
Yes – brilliant!
And an absence of curiosity and an excess of temptation begins to sound like a really interesting commentary on our rioting culture…
Which is a fascinating comment in itself – thank you!
This has really got my brain cell busy! I think it is also an interesting way of thinking about #hacking culture – no true curiosity about people’s lives and persons but the temptation to grab what is wanted as soon as it is wanted.
I am really interested in the ‘grabby’ character of life at the moment, and how digital culture hones this tendency/temptation in us, contra the non-grabbiness of the Christ-hymn in Phillipians. The Apple symbol is such a great icon of this. A couple of loosely related #digidiscipleship posts coming along soon from me on this…
Keep up the good digiwork. Really enjoying your blog.
One image seemingly waiting for the apple to fall and unaware of the what is going on and the other with a bite taken and cast aside and now waiting for the next version as still not satisfied.
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