Value for Tuesday of Week 11 in the season of Sowing

Wondering

Not merely a sense of wonderment (that is awe) but truly wondering about the many mysteries that we do not yet understand. The world is full of such mysteries. When we wonder, we take an intellectual journey. That can lead to other journeys.

  • It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature. [Albert Einstein, from Henry Goddard Leach, Living Philosophies (Simon and Schuster, 1931).]
  • At a certain point in life, most of us quit puzzling over everyday phenomena. We might savor the beauty of a blie sky, but we longer bother to wonder why it is that color. Leonardo did. So did Einstein, who wrote to another friend, ‘You and I never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born. [Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci, (Simon & Schuster, 2017), p. 520.]
  • Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of our science. [Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, p. 158.]
  • . . . wisdom begins in wonder. [Socrates]
  • . . . it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize. [Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Part 2.]
  • I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. [Albert Einstein]

Wonder, which we may characterize as an attitude of profound curiosity, is the intellectual component of the Odyssean spirit.

As with awe, people who seek to know the truth, and not merely have a sense or feeling of knowing, take a particular approach to wonder: to wonder is to ask and inquire, not necessarily to answer. The slogan of a well-known tabloid is “enquiring minds want to know” but enquiring minds that truly want to know are not likely to read that tabloid. Through awe and wonder, we seek to know but we do not presume to know. Knowing comes after sufficient inquiry has been conducted, and enough information has been uncovered to justify a claim to know. To be productive, a sense of wonderment must be accompanied by rigorous and objective application of reason and empiricism. Our departure here is that for us, wonder is more an operation of the cerebral cortex – a process of thinking – than an emotion alone. The emotions motivate us, as they always do, but we propose to refine the idea of wonder, in keeping with and as an adjunct to the advancement of knowledge.

An illustration of this distinction is found in the scholarly literature on environmental education, which suggests that a mere sense of wonderment can “reproduce anthropocentric attitudes toward the natural world”. By contrast, we advocate a contemplative wonder. Contemplative wonder “sparks our interest in the world as something worth attending to for its own sake . . .”. This kind of wonder remains attached to its generative sense of awe but is not dominated by it. Many writers do not make this distinction.

Among other things, wonder activates the imagination. In our relationships, it invites us to look beyond accepted rules and imagine the world as it might be. “Wonder is an essential characteristic of man, who is a creature of the universe that brought him forth and that in its many aspects evokes his character.” “Deep Wonder” has important implications for education. In our relationship to the world, wonder is a relative of curiosity. Naturally, it leads us to explore, so that we may come to know.

Real

True Narratives

Nicolaus Copernicus, facial reconstruction

Books on the subject of wonder:

Astronomy is a classical science. It is also a study in wonderment. We can look at it historically.

Or we can gaze at modern astronomy in awe and wonder.

We can even look at images from the Hubble telescope.

We can study our sense of wonder:

Cosmology is the study of the universe.

And we can go steps and steps further, wondering how life began and whether it exists anywhere but on Earth.

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Astronomy documentaries:

Cosmology documentaries:

Cosmos:

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels:

Poetry

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, / When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, / When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and / measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer / where he lectured with much / applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, / In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

[Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”]

Poems:

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Western “classical” works:

Albums:

Hearts of Space” radio series, mainly New Age music, and similar offerings

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

PART ONE: OUR STORY

First ingredient: Distinctions. What is the core and essence of being human? What is contentment, or kindliness, or Love? What is gentleness, or service, or enthusiasm, or courage? If you follow the links, you see at a glance what these concepts mean.

PART TWO: ANALYSIS

This site would be incomplete without an analytical framework. After you have digested a few of the examples, feel free to explore the ideas behind the model. I would be remiss if I did not give credit to my inspiration for this work: the Human Faith Project of Calvin Chatlos, M.D. His demonstration of a model for Human Faith began my exploration of this subject matter.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

A baby first begins to learn about the world by experiencing it. A room may be warm or cool. The baby learns that distinction. As a toddler, the child may strike her head with a rag doll, and see that it is soft; then strike her head with a wooden block, and see that it is hard. Love is a distinction: she loves me, or she doesn’t love me. This is true of every human value:

justice, humility, wisdom, courage . . . every single one of them.

This site is dedicated to exploring those distinctions. It is based on a model of values that you can read about on the “About” page. However, the best way to learn about what is in here is the same as the baby’s way of learning about the world: open the pages, and see what happens.

ants organic action machines

Octavio Ocampo, Forever Always

Jacek Yerka, House over the Waterfall

Norman Rockwell, Carefree Days Ahead

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

When you open tiostest.wpengine.com, you will see a human value identified at the top of the page. The value changes daily. These values are designed to follow the seasons of the year.

You will also see an overview of the value, or subject for the day, and then two columns of materials.

The left-side column presents true narratives, which include biographies, memoirs, histories, documentary films and the like; and also technical and analytical writings.

The right-side columns presents the work of the human imagination: fictional novels and stories, music, visual art, poetry and fictional film.

Each entry is presented to help identify the value. Open some of the links and experience our human story, again. It belongs to us all, and each of us is a part of it.

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The Work on the Meditations