It appears that a revelation has been slowly weaving itself into me for at least a couple of years, likely much longer. Here is one view of how it unfolded, blogpost by blogpost.
Several months ago, when totally engrossed in three different Great Courses Plus lecture series, I noticed that I love the experience of being fascinated and that I didn’t really care what got me there. I remembered, vaguely, something similar in some blogpost I wrote, found it and saw that this was not much different than what I’d written about then.
In that post, “Back to Basics” , early last year I said: I recently noticed that I was delighted in the experience of discovery itself. This delight occurred in the instant after the recognition that I had discovered something that was new to me. What came to mind was that maybe it does not matter at all what I was exploring, or had discovered, but that perhaps what I was seeking was simply delight. It also brought to mind that Freud’s “pleasure principle” – that entities seek pleasure and avoid pain – is visible in this pattern.
A year earlier, in the post “Family Traits” I wrote: If, to borrow a phrase, we were “made in the image and likeness of God,” then it makes sense that we still reflect the “likeness” of our parent energy, which some call god. It also makes sense, from a purely evolutionary point of view, that the essence of what we evolved from would still be embedded in us, much like the DNA in our bodies. 
And where those likenesses are most visible in a relatively undiluted form is in young children. Initially it takes time to bring their attention into our perceptual ranges, but as they do they are insatiably curious. They observe, then explore and enjoy. They investigate and try things out long before they have the use of language. Their behavior exhibits a pure “what is this?” – the true beginners mind – and “what can I do with it?” There is typically some level of delight or fear in discovery. I take that delight to be a form of appreciation, as are love, enjoyment, humor, laughter, and the like…
As my mind currently sees it, observation, curiosity, imagination, creativity (choice), and delight (appreciation) can present themselves with little distortion through the many layers of consciousness into our current levels of experience.
And now another part of “Back to Basics”: My guess is that the following are innate to all human beings, and perhaps other creatures as well: Observation, distinguishing, curiosity, imagination, creativity, discovery, wonder, awe, engagement, enjoyment (pleasure), sharing and play. Of these, I might say that wonder and awe may not be attributed to other animals, but most of these traits seem to at least show up in the juveniles of many mammals.
What I’m “wondering” is if these experiences are all, each in their own way, enjoyable. Discovery is a delightful experience – the “Oh Wow!” experience – creativity is fulfilling, imagination is expansive and freeing. There are innumerable ways that human beings use to arrive at these pleasures but it does seem, at least to me in this moment, that the pathways may ultimately be of little particular interest to us. Perhaps it is the longing for the experience itself that drives us to act as we do. The experience following a discovery, for example, and not the route to it, may be what is calling to us. We rationalize the particular path that we are invested in but in reality we may be just gravitating to common pleasurable experiences, which may differ only in the space from which we approach them.
Now I am back in this same dance, having forgotten that I have been here before. So again, it seems like there are certain common experiences that we tend to prefer, such that much of what we seek is not necessarily a wide range of particular “things” to experience, but that we explore numerous pathways towards certain types of experience, which we pursue solely for the sake of having that experience.
Here was my recent potential short list of things that most people seem to be attracted to in some manner and degree: Observation, Distinguishing, Curiosity, Imagination, Creativity, Discovery, Wonder, Awe, Joy/Delight, Sharing, Play, Humor, Love, Beauty and Goodness.