why you should have your mind blown once a day

 

Gimsoya, Norway

Hopefully, the ongoing state of affairs at home and abroad hasn't sucked your spirit completely dry, meaning that you can still appreciate beauty when you see it. If you are anything like me, you are still subject to sudden attacks of amazement, deep admiration, and even envy when you read a beautifully written narrative, or you hear a piece of music that touches your heart, or you witness an act of extraordinary kindness, despite what's going on in the news. Natural beauty, in particular, affects me deeply. I often wonder how a composer thinks to string a certain combination of chords together or conjures the orchestration and unexpected harmonies that have the power to bring a dull ache to my chest, or to transport me back in time to a treasured memory. I am also prone to envy when I read a book or story that captures my interest, changes my perspective, or engages my imagination. Anything that leaves me in awe.

"Awe is the beginning of wisdom.

Awe is the beginning of education."

~Matthew Fox~ 

The Serengeti, the Matterhorn, and the northern lights over Norway all brought me to awe. The music of Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, as well as numerous contemporary composers like Nadama and Deuter still bring me to awe. Science and mathematics do it, too. The way the body heals itself. The intricate workings of every single living cell. The way the heart beats steadily and predictably without any effort or awareness on our part. Don't get me started on consciousness! 

"The moment you start 

watching your thoughts, 

a higher level of consciousness

becomes activated."

~Eckhart Tolle~

The beauty of all this is the mystery that surrounds it...which brings me to math. 

I don't know if I dislike math because I'm not good at it...or if I'm not good at it because I don't like it enough to work at it. (I'd much rather play with words.) Which makes physics, calculus, and especially quantum theory a mystery to me. And it puts me in awe of people who do get it.

?

The book I'm lost in now is titled, "When We Cease to Understand the World" by Benjamin Labatut. The title resonated with me. It is based on the lives and work of some of our greatest physicists and mathematicians, factual but fictionalized to make it readable. It includes stories about Karl Schwarzchild, Einstein, and Schrodinger, among others I've never heard of...and their obsession with defining the nature of reality in numbers. With unfathomable brilliance. Right up there with Bach.

The fact that we have access to the minds and works of geniuses and prodigies should give us hope. There is a lot of wisdom we can draw from...and even more to learn.

"There are things we know that we know...

there are things that we know

we don't know...

and there are things we do not know

we don't know."

~Donald Rumsfeld~

Beautiful music and artwork, literary masterpieces, and natural wonders all have the power to bring us joy, to keep us connected, and to teach us. They leave us in awe and amazement. They give us hope and invite us to explore the mysteries that make life worth living.

According to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson:

"Everyone should have their mind blown

once a day."

jan