Sunday Musings – April 1, 2018
The nexus of wonder.
Regular readers of this blog know I listen to the weekly podcast of On Being with host Krista Tippett. The March 29, 2018 podcast, which took place during the first On Being gathering, features Maria Popopa, author of Brain Pickings and Natalie Batalha, the astrophysicist. It is entitled “Cosmic Imagining, Civic Pondering”. As is always the case I urge readers to download the app and listen to this podcast weekly.
What is occupying my mind as I end a week and month is a statement by Natalie Betalha, “…at the nexus of spirituality and science is wonder. And I just want to make people understand that that’s a common experience.”
Some have suggested that the purpose of worship is to praise. When I think of praise I think of the magic of all that we inhabit in this cosmos. Religion seems to attempt to posit a purpose for this existence. We do not seem content to just enjoy, as does Natalie Batalha and some others, the sense of wonder.
From a very early age children begin to create stories to explain what they experience. At age 4 their imaginations have few boundaries. Daily life, outer space, characters from other stories, and their imagination explore all that is and all that is possible. Left to decide for themselves, they have few rules to limits the characters they create. By age six most children will have begun to internalize some rules, which limit their imagination. Once that happens, exploration and the sense of wonder began to diminish. Now they begin the process of adopting the beliefs of their elders about the relationship of humans to the cosmos, how the cosmos is organized and how to differentiate oneself from the whole of the cosmos. Soon, the sense of wonder is lost. That very Buddhist state of being present with no labels for people or events is no longer possible.
Children and scientists ask the question of how and not why? Scientists ask how our behavior affects the environment, how certain habits affect our health, how time is affected travel, how thoughts get formulated, and how do be feed each other most efficiently.
On this Sunday when some are celebrating Easter, others are celebrating other religious holidays such as Passover, many are celebrating various other rites of spring or whatever season is approaching depending on where one is living, and still others are looking for a crust of bread or a safe haven from violence we have the opportunity – I have the opportunity – to humbly accept the gifts and the responsibility of my place of privilege. A god did not plop me into the place of plenty and plop others into a place of want. By chance I was given certain gifts including the gifts of skills in a place where their skills could be turned into a profession and a mean of earning money to feed and clothe others and, at times, myself. I did not earn this ability or these opportunities.
I suspect that if we follow the example of Natalie Batalha and “allow” ourselves to experience wonder we will be intentional in doing our part of walk in step with the Cosmos. We will again experience this 4-year-old sense of possibilities. We will know we belong and we will experience a purpose rather than positing it.
The rituals and the religious language are often an attempt to return to what we knew at 4 if chance or fate placed us in a place and situation where it was safe to just be 4. If not careful we will use rituals and religion to complicate our dance.
Welcome home.
Written April 1, 2018
The nexus of wonder.
Regular readers of this blog know I listen to the weekly podcast of On Being with host Krista Tippett. The March 29, 2018 podcast, which took place during the first On Being gathering, features Maria Popopa, author of Brain Pickings and Natalie Batalha, the astrophysicist. It is entitled “Cosmic Imagining, Civic Pondering”. As is always the case I urge readers to download the app and listen to this podcast weekly.
What is occupying my mind as I end a week and month is a statement by Natalie Betalha, “…at the nexus of spirituality and science is wonder. And I just want to make people understand that that’s a common experience.”
Some have suggested that the purpose of worship is to praise. When I think of praise I think of the magic of all that we inhabit in this cosmos. Religion seems to attempt to posit a purpose for this existence. We do not seem content to just enjoy, as does Natalie Batalha and some others, the sense of wonder.
From a very early age children begin to create stories to explain what they experience. At age 4 their imaginations have few boundaries. Daily life, outer space, characters from other stories, and their imagination explore all that is and all that is possible. Left to decide for themselves, they have few rules to limits the characters they create. By age six most children will have begun to internalize some rules, which limit their imagination. Once that happens, exploration and the sense of wonder began to diminish. Now they begin the process of adopting the beliefs of their elders about the relationship of humans to the cosmos, how the cosmos is organized and how to differentiate oneself from the whole of the cosmos. Soon, the sense of wonder is lost. That very Buddhist state of being present with no labels for people or events is no longer possible.
Children and scientists ask the question of how and not why? Scientists ask how our behavior affects the environment, how certain habits affect our health, how time is affected travel, how thoughts get formulated, and how do be feed each other most efficiently.
On this Sunday when some are celebrating Easter, others are celebrating other religious holidays such as Passover, many are celebrating various other rites of spring or whatever season is approaching depending on where one is living, and still others are looking for a crust of bread or a safe haven from violence we have the opportunity – I have the opportunity – to humbly accept the gifts and the responsibility of my place of privilege. A god did not plop me into the place of plenty and plop others into a place of want. By chance I was given certain gifts including the gifts of skills in a place where their skills could be turned into a profession and a mean of earning money to feed and clothe others and, at times, myself. I did not earn this ability or these opportunities.
I suspect that if we follow the example of Natalie Batalha and “allow” ourselves to experience wonder we will be intentional in doing our part of walk in step with the Cosmos. We will again experience this 4-year-old sense of possibilities. We will know we belong and we will experience a purpose rather than positing it.
The rituals and the religious language are often an attempt to return to what we knew at 4 if chance or fate placed us in a place and situation where it was safe to just be 4. If not careful we will use rituals and religion to complicate our dance.
Welcome home.
Written April 1, 2018
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