What fascinates you the most in this world?

The sea, it's shores, it's sunrises and sunsets,
it's visitors passing by, their conversations,
the beauty and strength I find there in creation,
and the comfort I find in...

"The repeated refrains of nature,
the migration of the birds,
the ebb and flow of the tides,
the assurance that dawn comes after night,
and spring comes after winter.ā€ ~Rachel Carson
`
 
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Good question.

For me, I guess it is how to connect with deeper feelings? I don't know if that is the right way to phrase it. All I can say, is that when I have been moved to compassion...that feeling seems...oh, I don't know...complete somehow...
 
Em in Ohio said:
Everything fascinates me. I think that is why there isn't a single thing that I am really good at doing or grasping! I really want to be a "know it all."
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A few years after we graduated High School my BFF (even tho she died last August), and i were housemates in Honolulu. i was talking or asking someone else questions about some esoteric concept and she said to me: You know not everyone is as passionately curious as you are about damn near everything. Not long after we came across a book of poetry by popular astrologer of the day (70s). The poems referred to character traits she attributed to various signs. One of the Leo (another friend did my horoscope--not only sun but 3 planets in Leo) poems included a line that was very similar to what my friend had said to me--it starte 'Listen up, pussycat'

Oh, and my Dad always said one needn't know/remember everything---one needs to know how to get info and instructions you need when you need them. Ironically both his memory and mine excellent. Somethings i wouldn't mind forgetting.
 
feywon said:
A few years after we graduated High School my BFF (even tho she died last August), and i were housemates in Honolulu. i was talking or asking someone else questions about some esoteric concept and she said to me: You know not everyone is as passionately curious as you are about damn near everything. Not long after we came across a book of poetry by popular astrologer of the day (70s). The poems referred to character traits she attributed to various signs. One of the Leo (another friend did my horoscope--not only sun but 3 planets in Leo) poems included a line that was very similar to what my friend had said to me--it starte 'Listen up, pussycat'

Oh, and my Dad always said one needn't know/remember everything---one needs to know how to get info and instructions you need when you need them. Ironically both his memory and mine excellent. Somethings i wouldn't mind forgetting.
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As a child, I went through a 4.5" dictionary word by word and challenged myself to know all about each significant word; I wore out our encyclopedia set and then borrowed a neighbor's that had far more illustrations. I seriously did want to know and understand everything. And yes, several people pointed out the futility of this goal. I didn't care. My problem in life (haha, one of many!) was that one question always led to many, many others. I had trouble staying on track and still do. If we had the internet and Google, back in the day - oh my! At the very least, I could have stopped nagging my father for library trips. (Edit: to Feywon - Like you, my father taught me to read the newspaper and National Geographic Magazines by the time I was four.) My mother objected vehemently because our reading took our attention away from her.
 
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caramel said:
How minds work, mine and others. I've always been fascinated by why people do what they do.
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Part of why i studied psychology in college and read a lot of both it and neurobiology both before and after getting my degree.
Two books i recommend if you haven't read them already:
"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and "The Brain That Heals Itself" By Dr. Norman Doidge which is very informative about both history of neuroplasticity and how it is being used to help people.
 
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Murrmurr said:
I'm gonna be a stick in the mud -- Nothing fascinates me more than my kids.
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Nothing wrong with that. i felt that way about mine when raising them and now feel that way about my grandson. He is particularly interesting because he's on the Autism Spectrum. Therapy helped him regain verbal skills. He's a 'fascinated' with most things person---science & nature especially. But history as well.
 
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Em in Ohio said:
As a child, I went through a 4.5" dictionary word by word and challenged myself to know all about each significant word; I wore out our encyclopedia set and then borrowed a neighbors that had far more illustrations. I seriously did want to know and understand everything. And yes, several people pointed out the futility of this goal. I didn't care. My problem in life (haha, one of many!) was that one question always led to many, many others. I had trouble staying on track and still do. If we had the internet and Google, back in the day - oh my! At the very least, I could have stopped nagging my father for library trips.
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When i think of all the research i've done the old-fashioned (card catalog and books) way. i have also been known to ask someone who should know. When history professor was stumped by a procedural question about SCOTUS a fellow student asked i actually called the Supreme Court, talked to a law clerk there, got the answer and reported it to the class the next day. Prof's jaw dropped when i told him how i got it. The clerk of the court had been thrilled someone cared about their job.

Dad taught me to read at 4 and when i started asking what words new to me (even after sounding out) meant he made me get dictionary, read definition than explain what it meant in the context it was used. After a few times i stopped going to him---i just got the dictionary, learned what i needed and more (bonus --it was one of those old ones that gave the language origin of the root word)
 
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Em in Ohio said:
As a child, I went through a 4.5" dictionary word by word and challenged myself to know all about each significant word; I wore out our encyclopedia set and then borrowed a neighbors that had far more illustrations. I seriously did want to know and understand everything. And yes, several people pointed out the futility of this goal. I didn't care. My problem in life (haha, one of many!) was that one question always led to many, many others. I had trouble staying on track and still do. If we had the internet and Google, back in the day - oh my! At the very least, I could have stopped nagging my father for library trips.
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President Truman is said to have read every single volume in his town's library. I think it was 2000 volumes. I think he and a friend did it in high school.

If you love words, you might like this...a dictionary of unusual words...

https://phrontistery.info/ihlstart.html
 
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