being frank

There’s a quote attributed to W.C. Fields that says: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. It certainly sounds like something he would have said (and again, for you Centennials or Millennials, look him up.) And even if he didn’t, he would have appreciated the association. But in today’s world where the lines between decorum and debasement have been blurred to a great extent, we seem awfully bedazzled by bullshit.

One of the things I always remember fondly about the people in my life whom I’ve admired, was their sense of awe. That even within their vast respective repositories of knowledge, they still viewed the world with wonder and reverence. And understandably so, for the world is full of wonder, mystery and delightful conundrums. There are inexplicable mysteries happening all around us, inside of us, that we often ascribe to miracles or magic. Yet a miracle is nothing more than a complex function that has yet to be deciphered through science. And even when we do reveal the source of a miracle’s power or essence, it doesn’t lose its mystery. It merely reveals its wonderment to us. Arthur C. Clarke, the noted science fiction writer and futurist, once shared his thoughts on the matter: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

But we seem to have lost that sense of wonder; that feeling of awe and majesty that reminds us of our place in this world. It makes us mindful of the fact that there is much in our existence and beyond that is greater than ourselves. It’s a humbling feeling, and one that should create a sense of universal solidarity. Instead, that sense of awe brings out feelings of animosity. It makes some folks feel like they’re being left out; that they’re missing something they should have, and not necessarily for sharing. It reminds me of an acronym you see floating about these days: FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out.

In this humble writer’s opinion, the inability to feel a sense of awe is a severe detriment. It’s as if you’ve decided to forgo your place in this incredible symphony of life for a few man-made scraps of perceived ownership. That all the possessions you gather create some representation of your value or place in this world. Nothing could be further from the truth. To follow a sense of awe is to be connected to the eternal. It is a way to understand the miracle you represent on this Earth – that we all represent – and how together we form one of the crowning achievements in nature. Albert Einstein once said: The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

Look around you; really look around. If can you tear yourself away from your smartphone, video game, 24-hour news feed or the March Madness playoffs, take a moment to survey your surroundings. In order for this to work, you need to contemplate what is all around you with a sense of innocence devoid of the judgmental layers developed over years of collected fears or biases. As your eyes fix on an item, try hard not to look at what it is; this isn’t an exercise in designating the style, category or type of thing you’re looking at. Instead, look at what it does; what it represents. If it’s a plant, think of how it began. Picture it as a seed filled with genetic encoding that through a simple yet elegant process of photosynthesis became the plant you’re looking at. If it’s a piece of furniture or even a vehicle, think of the work – the craftsmanship – that went into building the object. It involved countless hours of training, passion and design. It was built on the lessons and ingenuity of people who lived decades or even centuries before you. If your eyes fall on a person walking down the street, don’t fixate on their color, gender or somatotype. Instead, think of the long strand of complex genetic permutations that coalesced into the being before you. Think of the generations that preceded that person; the lives, loves and losses that had to occur to bring that person into existence. Hopefully, you’ll walk away with an awareness of expansion; an awakening that opens your mind’s eye to the greater possibilities around you. If you feel that; if you get the impression that the world is bigger than you ever imagined, congratulations – you have regained your sense of awe.