"There's a difference between avoidance and stewardship of our own attention." - Ken Woodward
"There's a difference between avoidance and stewardship of our own attention." - Ken Woodward
When life grinds us down, something essential is revealed. In this solo episode, Ken Woodward explores why questions are the fundamental technology humans use to make sense of a world that has broken wide open.
Drawing from a personal essay about growing up in rural Arizona and the disorienting experience of having a lifelong worldview bubble pop, Ken examines the overwhelming flood of inputs modern life delivers and why not every question in that flood is yours to carry.
He contrasts two kinds of wisdom, the certainty-hardened and the question-exhausted, and makes the case that the most meaningful conversations happen with people who have crossed a difficult threshold and been changed by it. The grinding of life, like a mortar and pestle, doesn't destroy us. It reveals us.
The fragrance was always there, waiting.
This Curated Questions episode can be found on all major platforms and at CuratedQuestions.com.
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Keep questioning!
Episode Notes
00:00 Introduction: Growing Up in the Bubble
01:48 When the Bubble Bursts: The Flood of Nuance
03:30 Why We Ask Questions: Locating Ourselves
05:14 The Dance of Critical Thinking
07:22 The Mountain Goat Method: Questions Without Answers
08:44 Two Kinds of People: Knowers and Searchers
11:07 The Mortar and Pestle: Fragrance of an Intentional Life
12:02 Life in the Bubble vs. Life in the Pestle
12:54 Discerning Your Questions: What to Pick Up and Set Down
14:38 The Fragrance You're Becoming: Closing Reflections