Finding our 'best selves' through curiosity
October 5, 2005
KOKOMO, Ind.—Karla Farmer Stouse can't remember a time when she wasn't curious or “creating colorful, unique ways” to test her theories about the world.
“My childhood was a string of discovery moments, jam-packed with question after question:
'What if someone really could become invisible?'
'If you listen very, very carefully, can you hear someone else's thoughts?'
'Could a person run fast enough off the roof and jump far enough to land safely on her feet?' ”
A lecturer in English at Indiana University Kokomo, Farmer Stouse invites others to rediscover their own “Pursuit of Curiosity, Creativity, and Compassion” during a presentation Tuesday, October 18, at 6 p.m. in the Kelley House. Farmer Stouse's talk is the second in a “Last Lecture” series, offered as part of IU Kokomo's 60th Anniversary celebration.
The audience-participation talk will guide listeners in looking “beyond their current approaches to learning and life to discover that all-important question, 'What could be . . . ?' ” said Farmer Stouse. Considering such questions, she believes, helps individuals reach for their potential and accept challenges.
Everyone starts life with a built-in “desire to glean every bit of knowledge from the world in our own fashion,” Farmer Stouse contends. “But too often along the way, we surrender that curiosity and that creativity to peer pressure, to fear of failure. Sometimes, it's just plain easier to be just like everyone else and to keep our original, out-of-the-ordinary ideas to ourselves.”
Strangling our own curiosity and creativity, we might “demand the same adherence to 'typical' from everyone else,” she said. “We lose our ability to appreciate diversity, uniqueness, genius. And, the world suffers.
“We can eliminate those limitations and find our best selves. We just need a little practice … and that's what this interactive presentation is all about.”
The concept of “the Last Lecture” has a long history in academia, according to Professor Emeritus of Political Science Allen Maxwell, Ph.D., who initiated the IU Kokomo anniversary lecture series on September 21. “A Last Lecture is an opportunity for an academic—either a faculty member nearing retirement or one who has retired—to convey the thoughts and ideas that he or she would like to leave with their audience if it were, in fact, their 'last' lecture,” he said. The current series features both retired and current faculty of IU Kokomo.
The series and other 60th Anniversary events continue through June 2006. Visit http://www.iuk.edu/events for a schedule of activities.
The Kelley House is located on the IU Kokomo campus, behind Virgil and Elizabeth Hunt Hall. Persons without campus parking passes should follow signs to visitor parking for the October 18 lecture.
