Nature and the Virtue of Perplexity

the wonder of Fibonacci numbers

How does my cat purr?

Why do sunflowers, seashells and pinecones grow in a predictable sequence of numbers?

How come elephants don’t get cancer?

Abraham Joshua Heschel said that “the beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.”

Maya Angelou said, “This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before!”

Nature offers us the opportunity to stop, look and wonder. We can choose to move on, carrying that sense of wonder with us, which may drive us to investigate, research or try to solve the great riddles of life, like cancer, bioluminescence or purring. But nature provides a special opportunity to stop and look, to wonder. Some, like Stephen Batchelor, argue that the act of wondering helps us practice mindfulness as we embrace the exquisite tension of not knowing. The idea is that wonder, surprise and perplexity actually define human existence, and that when we fail to be surprised by violence, or the sun rising, we cease to fully live (see Heschel). I assert that wondering empowers people, children in particular. 



To be in the habit of wondering, of not knowing, is to maintain an attitude of curiosity, to feel the power of seeking and questioning.  Asking, Why? gave us penicillin, airplanes, telephones, refrigeration. Wondering why enables us exercise the power of the mind, to pursue ideas and perhaps take action. Wonder is a powerful choice for any child, driving personal development, and common human endeavor. I defy you to name a human innovation that did not begin with a question. And the majority of those questions originate in nature, they find their birth in the moment of human response to natural phenomenon. How does the sparrow fly? Why is ice ice? What is that moon made of?

We still don’t really understand how or why cats purr. Amazing, but true. We have not begun to catalog whole regions of this earth—to date we have explored less than 5% of the earth’s oceans. Less than 5%! We haven’t even begun to understand the potential of our own genetic code. We are the tips of very large icebergs. And icebergs are the tips of our wondering about our climate, and our history actually. Take a walk and look, smell, see or feel any one thing—I guarantee it has the potential to inspire a question that can lead to a whole universe of questions. And speaking of the universe…

When children routinely experience nature, they are developing curiosity and the potential to ask their own questions. Hands-on experiences with the basic stuff of life—dirt, air, water—engage infants in questions they seek to answer with their bodies, and their minds follow. Experience is implicit learning, and later it becomes explicit, as children develop language and theories. Splashing in a puddle provides hands-on lessons about what the heck water is. Later on, in school, the experience is carried forward when the child is asked to apply language and “fact” to those experiences—now they can name the physical properties of water. But it all starts with a moment of water, when the child was immersed, literally, in the moment (and this is a hands-on experience that begins in the womb!).

The best by-product of wonder, is that it engages the whole child, or the entire adult, in a moment apart from the regrets of the past and anxieties of the future. The moment of wonder creates a space amidst the “noise” of daily life. When we ask, Why? we stop and look.  Eventually we go, and perhaps we carry a question forward bearing it through inquiry to discovery. It follows then that in wonder, there is always hope.

Camp Fire Minnesota recognizes the power of wonder and works to connect every child with nature.