Caretakers of Wonder

What we here for? What is the meaning of life? Some of us have found an answer which satisfies us, at least for the moment and some of us are still struggling with this question.

Maybe as children we had a good idea because I think part of the answer is that we are to be amazed.

Unitarian Universalist minister Bruce Southworth wrote, “my take on the world, my faith amidst the heartache, is that these lives of ours are simply gifts. Mysterious, awesome, we arise out of a glorious creation, and what are we to be if not caretakers of wonder.”

To be a caretaker – means to take care of – it involves a process of watchful attention.

There seem to be 3 categories of wonder: 1) wonder about, 2) wonder at, and 3) wonder that.

To wonder about something is to express curiosity. It is a drive to find something out just for the sake of finding something out. In this case the wonder has its roots in ignorance and can be satisfied by further knowledge.

The second kind of wonder, to wonder at something is to stand in awe.  We usually experience this kind of wonder only when confronted by something extraordinary, novel if you will, as in “the seven wonders of the world”.

But as Thomas Green notes:

Wonder aroused only by sensational things is satiable, because they have a disgusting way of becoming usual and ordinary. When men find occasion to wonder only at the extraordinary or spectacular, it is the surest sign that wonder is already dead. The wonder that is ceaseless, that can never be exhausted, has always to do with what is usual and close at hand; for the marvel of a thing has less to do with its frequency than with its contingency.

This brings us to our third category of wonder, to wonder that, a wonder which has its basis in the recognition of contingency. A recognition of the mystery of existence itself. This recognition of the wonder of ordinary things is critical.  Dag Hammarskold expressed this sense when he wrote:

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, by wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

For some people the awareness of contingency gives rise to a belief in God. I think that whether we look at the world and see a marvelously ordered universe and believe in a God which set the universe in motion or hold to the belief that all of this splendor, of planets and universes and animals and humans has occurred as a result of some small set of events with the tiniest fraction of possibility for occurrence it is still amazing. Whether theist or non-believer there is still room for wonder and our lives are incomplete if we do not take time to nourish this sense of awe within ourselves.

I have studied enough anatomy, physiology to be able to explain the creation and birth of a baby. And yet I still find it miraculous.  Think of all the things which have to happen in exactly the right sequence for a healthy baby to be born. How is it that we ever have any healthy babies. And aren’t those little fingers and finger nails totally formed just miniature amazing.

And how about the variety of things and species of things that we find on this planet. Last month I went to visit the St. Louis Zoo. It led me to muse about the extravagance of the universe or if you will the extravagance of God.

Talk about contingency. Why do we need so many species of birds, so many colors, such variety in body shape, bill shape, leg length and neck length. We have salmon colored flamingos on long spindly legs, and penguins that look like they are wearing tuxedos and hold their eggs on their feet to hatch. Some birds nest in trees, some on the ground, some borrow other nests. Some birds walk upside down, some fly and soar gracefully like hawks and eagles, some swim, some can’t swim at all, and others like pelicans take daring plunges into the sea. Some are as small as hummingbirds other the size of an ostrich.

And that’s just birds.

How about animals like zebras with a variety of stripe patterns, whales with distinguishing patterns on their flukes, humans with individual finger prints. Who or what is making sure there are no doubles and coming up with the new ones as needed.

Camels are interesting – why the humps and aren’t those beautiful long eye lashes to die for. Did you ever wonder why there are giraffes and why are their tongues black? And 24 inches long – now that is a serious tongue.

There are anteaters and kangaroos, elephants and mice, animals with pouches for raising their young, species like tortoises and hermit crabs that live in their very own RV.

Does anyone know how many species of trees exist on the earth? Just think of the variety here in Evansville. Flowering trees like red buds, dogwoods, Bradford pears, mimosas, trees like sycamore which shed their bark, poplars with their funny tulips, stately oaks, and birches with their beautiful and fragile white skin which peels off in sheets.

Shall we name all the varieties of flowers? Flowers are proof of extravagance as they seem to exist purely for beauty and they pop up everywhere vacant fields, old parking lots, dark woods, and sun baked gardens. Daisies, sunflowers, tulips, chicory, iris, little violets that poke their heads up in your lawns are just a few of the more common ones.

We too are products of extravagance. People covered with skin of warm browns, pinkish white, yellow, blue black and all the possible combinations therein. Heads full of curly hair, wavy hair, kinky hair as well as straight hair and fine hair and thick hair and no hair at all. Noses vary too. Have you ever counted the number of different noses you have encountered? And ears some are large some small with a variety of lobes and some pressed down others sticking well out and all the better to hear with. Each of us is unique and a mingling of some other set of unique combinations.

This time of year always inspires me: the darkness of the sky at night, crisp air and the softness of new fallen snow.