Sunday, December 11, 2011

Maintaining a sense of wonder

I tweeted that at bedtime on Friday my just-7 daughter had asked 'How do I know this world isn't fake?'

It struck a chord with many of you. In fact I'd hazard a guess to say that it was the single most retweeted thing I've ever published (not said, mind, she said it).

And it's not the first time she has launched into the existential.  A couple of years back she hit me with both: 'if God made everything, who made God'? And on getting into numbers: 'I want to know what is the last number on the number line '

Out of the mouths of babes...

I'd like to think my daughter is spectacularly clever or oh so unique.  But the fact is most of our kids ask questions like this. A lot.

The tragedy is that as we grow up we stop.

A former philosophy professor of mine once described philosophy as 'maintaining the sense of wonder'.  It's a sense of wonder about the world we are all born with.  A sense of wonder we would all do well to try to rekindle.

Happy thinking.

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