Wonder

In the twenty-first century, we have never before had access to so much information, including the twenty-four-hour news that we can consume on a variety of devices. With so many terrible things going on in the world, it’s no surprise that people are starting to avoid the news. Recent surveys show that “news avoidance” has grown in recent years, with over a third of the population choosing to disengage from daily updates on politics and world events.

As well as indicating that people do not want to expose themselves to news of all the daily challenges and suffering of modern life, maybe there is also another reason. This could be that we yearn for a simpler, slower, and more peaceful life, where we reconnect with and appreciate what it means to be human with a sense of wonder.

There is the Earth, the four-and-a-half billion-year-old planet that we live on, and the collective World of societies, culture, language, national identities, politics, money, consumerism, industry, technology, and information that humans have created – that hover over the natural planet. When we grow up and become socialised adults, we end up seeing the World as the primary reality and the Earth as secondary. It’s this mis-take that led to the climate crisis and some of the other challenges we face. 

The German Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer said that “Behind our existence lies something else that becomes accessible to us only by our shaking off the world”. He was pointing to the need to move beyond the surface of our worldly existence to discover a deeper, more meaningful truth. And one way to discover this meaning is to experience wonder. 

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