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Wonder and Scale: Please Discuss
Apr. 24th, 2007 08:33 amFor many people, "sense of wonder" and nature intersect in the realms of grandeur and majesty (mountain peaks, huge waterfalls, volcanos, dramatic canyons). Many also find wonder in the bizarre and exotic. These things, though, are not human scale, and not part of our daily lives.
However, since wonder leads to valuing, cherishing, appreciating, and since it's ecologically desirable to have us v, c, & a nature wherever we find it, this argues for developing a sense of wonder that's as broad as possible, encompassing also the human-scale and the micro-scale. And this in turn argues for immersing children in nature, because children can so readily learn to experience wonder in the ordinary.
( Robin Wall Kimmerer on snowflakes )
So, then, for children it's not so hard. How, though, can busy (and sometimes cynical) adults expand their sense of wonder in nature, such that the daily, the mundane, can qualify, and not just those landscapes that really capture their attention?
However, since wonder leads to valuing, cherishing, appreciating, and since it's ecologically desirable to have us v, c, & a nature wherever we find it, this argues for developing a sense of wonder that's as broad as possible, encompassing also the human-scale and the micro-scale. And this in turn argues for immersing children in nature, because children can so readily learn to experience wonder in the ordinary.
( Robin Wall Kimmerer on snowflakes )
So, then, for children it's not so hard. How, though, can busy (and sometimes cynical) adults expand their sense of wonder in nature, such that the daily, the mundane, can qualify, and not just those landscapes that really capture their attention?