I WANT TO SEE

Our dog Lukey wants to know and see everything. He has his nose into everything I do. I don’t blame him because this is the way the world works.

If an accident happens people’s curiosity gets the better of them and they want to see and know what happened. I recall traveling with my parents across the country and all along the road would be outrageous signs claiming ridiculous things like “See the two headed calf or see the half man and half snake.”

Rarely would my dad stop because he knew better. The exception would be if we needed gas or to eat for these hucksters would locate near a restaurant or gas station. I would just die for I wanted to see the attraction as advertised. I did get to see the two headed calf, it was a stuffed calf skin with an extra head sewn on it. What a let down but I was sure that the next one would be real.

While somewhat wiser I still have to deal with the remnant of my old curiosity and the Internet is a danger zone.

Back in the fifties when Billy Graham was getting started he came to the Bay area and most of the churches would cooperate hoping to get some of the new converts from the crusade into their church. I had a friend that wanted me to join the choir with him. There were several hundred that sang in the meetings but I simply said no because I couldn’t sing well enough and couldn’t read the music. My friend kept after me and I refused until he said if we sing in the choir we can see everything because we'll be right behind the pulpit. My strong desire to SEE overpowered my lack of confidence in my musical ability and we signed up for the choir.

Cliff Barrows was the director and he quickly positioned us as to alto, bass and so forth. Everyone had their music and I had mine. I could read the words but I couldn’t read the tenor part and began to feel out of place. Of course my friend felt very confident for he had played in the Marine Corp band and could read all the musical parts. He assured me he could in the next few minutes teach me the part we were to sing. Suffice it to say I struggled through the singing part but I added to the body count even if I didn’t help much with the singing.

Just like my friend had said we could see very well and that was great. We were informed that no one could leave after the choir was in place and to go to the bathroom before taking our seats. It was about a four hour stint and that was interesting for some.

My curiosity has taken me to many places of interest and many places I would rather not have been.

I suspect that curiosity is one of the last things to go as we grow older because we want to know and if unrestrained it becomes one of our weaknesses.