Interesting

The word interesting is an interesting word, especially when you analyze it for when it is used, and why.  Common definitions of the word (interesting) reveal...

1. arousing curiosity or attention: arousing curiosity, attracting or holding attention, or provoking thought;
2. not boring: enjoyable because of being varied, challenging, stimulating, or exciting.

...and when used as indicated above, the word interesting is adaptable and appropriate in context.  For example, intellectual justifications expressed to support one political candidate over other candidates could be described as interesting when compared to my rationale to promote a different candidate. (Emphasis  on "intellectual").  

However, the more "interesting" applications of this particular word are when we use the word to either mask our true opinion, so as not to offend, or to hide behind it, when not having an opinion at all.  Consider ones individual interpretation of "The Arts" as probably one of the more prevalent scenarios of when "interesting" does not really mean "interesting". 

Let's say, for example, when I find myself at an art gallery and I am exposed to various displays of, hmmm, Modern Abstract Art paintings.  You know the kind of indescribable objects and displays one encounters at a modern art show.  Let's be honest, do you actually understand or appreciate all that is presented before you as abstract art?  No offense to artist Mark Lawrence for my lack of culture or "proper breeding" but the only word in my vocabulary that would be an appropriate response to the solicitation "what do you think" on that which is before me would be "interesting" - as I spontaneously nod my head up and down as if in some really deep interpretive thought.  

Come on, admit it, you've been there and done that - right? 

Some poetry produce the same impact to my inner consciousness as involuntarily expressed by the external blank reaction on my face. 

To the New World

What eats through fibers, salt
And sting, our hands defeat.
We make our journey comforting—
Wood masts rot, or is it just

That planks reflect the gutter light
Of daybreak? Dawns we wake
To smoke of rusted galley stoves.
From buckets, swabbing hieroglyphs,

The story going on the wall.
Our prayer: Consume
My heart away. The seaman's
Cough, the first mate shrill.

Brass canteen, directory and quills
Coursing under foam, holds
Stocked with flour, rosaries.
We keep the books. We keep

And write it down, and look
For tell-tale signs.
An albatross. Whale whiteness
In the sky. The bleakness

Of our tarnished boat, the afterglows
Of beach. A voyage
We've been on so long.
But weren't we spoken to?

These rocking waves, vast winds.
No laws. Not here.
No laws, no hearth, no heart,
No dowry dress, we mean no harm.

Again, no offense to poet Valerie Duff for my lack of culture or "proper breeding" but the only word in my vocabulary that would be an appropriate response to the solicitation "what do you think" on that which is before me would be "interesting" - as I spontaneously nod my head up and down as if in some really deep interpretive thought.

How about many theoretical discussions on cosmic dark matter theories, such as an introduction to WIMPs:

"Short for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, the ghostly WIMPs are predicted by theory but have so far eluded detection. With odd names like photino and masses of perhaps 10 to 100 times that of the proton, WIMPs could account for lots of dark matter if, as some theories predict, they are common in the universe. Cosmologists like cold-dark-matter WIMPs because they would be relatively heavy and thus move much slower than the speed of light. If so, they could have been the gravitational “seeds” around which regular matter congregated to form galaxies yet, because they don't interact with radiation, not affect the observed smoothness of the cosmic background radiation."

As before, no offense to professor Stephen Hawkins for my lack of culture or "proper breeding" but the only word in my vocabulary that would be an appropriate response to the solicitation "what do you think" on that which is before me would be "interesting" - as I spontaneously nod my head up and down as if in some really deep interpretive thought.

This is an interesting dilemma, is it not? 

Now, going forward, when others respond to my solicitation of "what do you think" about this Blog posting that is before them, I will have to decide if I have provoked thought within them or if they are masking their true opinion when they respond with "interesting" - as they spontaneously nod their heads up and down as if in some really deep interpretive thought.