The Greatest Human Wealth
One of my favorite questions to ask people is: "What do you think is the greatest human wealth?" and I've gotten all sorts of answers. From materialistic things such as gold, money, fame, even raw land, to some decent ones, such as family, love, the indominable human spirit, the human consciousness and so much more. But 2 answers have particularly struck me so hard that it keeps me awake at 3 AM in the night and doesn't let any other thought prevail over my mind during shower.
Attention and the ability to ask questions certainly have something unique about them. Whether is the fact they both are the key to unlocking deeper understanding or the way they shape and direct human experience, there’s something profoundly powerful about them. Both attention and the ability to ask questions are the gateways to infinite possibilities. When you really think about it, they might be among the greatest human assets, because they enable everything else to unfold.
Attention, in it's rawest form is the power of your present. It allows you to focus on one single event, idea or a person. Without it, many discoveries important for our human survival might not have occurred. Let's say for example, the discovery and harnessing of fire was one such important event that humans replicated by bringing their attention to how it was made and the details related to it. Ofcourse, I might be missing some stuff, but you get the basic idea.
No ape has ever discovered a way to harness a fire. Sure, it may pay attention to some stuff, but it never truly paid so much attention to harness a thing so powerful it literally burnt down countless civilization.
An ape might observe fire, even fear or be fascinated by it, but it won’t sit there for hours, eyes wide and mind whirring, trying to understand it... how it starts, why it burns, what it can do. That’s a uniquely human thing: this drive not just to see, but to know. To not just survive, but to understand.
Fire has given us so much things. Warmth, protection, traditions, and one of my favorite, the ability to cook food! Someone had to ask the question: "Can all stuff can we do with this fire" and thus humans made yet another important discovery: cooking food. I think I don't need to explain to you the importance of cooked food. But it was that curiosity that revolutionized humanity's future. And this is why I consider the ability to ask questions our greatest wealth. Whether it was about fire, the stars, life, love, death, or even “Why does my bread go stale?”, it always began with asking.
But as ever-the-more foolish I was, I started asking myself: "Which one is more important for humans, Attention or the Ability to ask Questions?" Had I only paid attention to this thought, I might have settled for one answer. Had I only asked the question, I might have overlooked the other. But perhaps the truth is that, Every invention is an answer. Every answer was once a question. And every question is proof that someone, somewhere, was paying attention.
So maybe the greatest human wealth isn't one or the other. Maybe it’s the alchemy between the two. Attention sharpens the mind. Questions ignite it. Together, they shape the world.
Thank you, NSS