“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full or wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.” – Rachel Carson The Sense of Wonder
2 Replies to “{thursday thought}”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
What a beautiful quote. One of my dad’s favorite sentences/reminders was “childlike or childish?” I think curiosity and wonder are the best traits to cultivate.
The word “cultivate,” though, by its very definition defies the whole childlike thing. Kids don’t cultivate wonder – it’s there, organically. One thing I notice with great frequency in this society is that we cultivate a sense of “I didn’t know” in the name of innocence, in the name of sloughing things off we were too stuffed with privilege to ever think about. As adults, we have SOME reasonable responsibility to do more than wander in wonder… we have to think. And yet, whilst thinking, we have to refrain from cynicism and jaded thinking — that, surely, is the harder work. The world is full of wonder, wonder-full, so looking at it with wide, discovering eyes, is never the problem…