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Does curiosity always kill the cat?
In her vlog this week, Sarah Maguire, our CEO, ponders whether it might be better if we were more curious about our neighbours...
Hello all. 'I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here' began on Sunday and this year I’m watching with a keener interest than usual. The show is coming from somewhere called Gwrych Castle which is in Abergele, North Wales. I grew up in North Wales starting in Llandudno, and aged 11 we moved to a small village called Llangernyw, which is only about 20 minutes away from Abergele. Llangernyw is a village that probably if you closed your eyes you wouldn’t realise that you’d driven through. It’s very, very beautiful, having said that. In the 1980’s it had a population of around 980 people. And its claim to fame is a having the oldest living yew tree in Europe, which is in one of the churchyards. It’s around 4,000 years old.
There are many different ways I think to look at living in a small community, much like the celebrities in Gwrych Castle. You get to know people well or you could get stuck in close proximity to people that you don’t like very much. An objection for some people of living in small communities is they feel people are nosey – everybody knows your business. What I wanted to ask is, is that such a bad thing? I suppose the answer depends on how you choose to see things. Are people being nosey or are they being curious about each other? If we were all more curious about each other, about our neighbours and people living nearby, would we learn more about each other, become more tolerant and inclusive? I know things aren’t always that simple but surely being more curious and less suspicious, being more open to conversations that may lead to a better understanding of those who live around us is something we could all do a little bit more of.
Have a good weekend, bye.