Curiosity as the Ultimate Antidepressant Joe Moran

The most reliable antidepressant is rekindled curiosity, and only the curious try to draw bits of the world together into words.

The word curious derives from the latin cura, which also gives us both cure and care.

Curiosity is a cure for self-absorption, the cure being to care about the world and lay down roots in it again.

Reading and writing sentences is a means of laying down these roots, of achieving absorbedness.

And to be truly absorbed in anything is to be blessed.

Credit: Joe Moran

Comment: This quote beautifully intertwines the concepts of care, reading, and writing, presenting them as intertwined pathways to healing and connection. It suggests that to care is to extend oneself beyond personal boundaries and invest emotionally in the world, and that reading and writing are profound acts of care.

When we read, we immerse ourselves in the lives, thoughts, and experiences of others, cultivating empathy and understanding.

When we write, we engage in a process of self-expression that also invites others to connect with our inner world, fostering a shared sense of humanity.

Moreover, the idea of writing and reading as acts of care aligns with the notion of cura—care and cure—in that both activities can heal by reconnecting us to the world around us. They allow us to care for ourselves by giving our thoughts and feelings a form and direction, and to care for others by engaging with their ideas and stories.

In this way, the quote highlights how reading and writing are not just solitary acts but are deeply relational, fostering both personal growth and communal bonds. They remind us that to be truly absorbed in the world, and thus blessed, is to care deeply through the written word, bridging the gap between ourselves and the broader tapestry of human experience.

Source: First You Write a Sentence – The Elements of Reading, Writing…and Life

Posts where this quotation is embedded

•  The Care in Curiosity **   Seeing it not as a tool, but a way of being with the world

Quotations: Joe Moran

Tags: curiosity (27) | reading (3) | writing (21)

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