The Pursuit of Wonder
We no longer look at anything with wonder. With awe. The kind that baffles the mind. Leaves us confused. Clueless. Eternally curious. We are not pursuing anything that quickens our heartbeat. That makes us lose track of time. That sends us down the rabbit hole. We know nothing that makes us talk endlessly.
Pursuing wonder matters. You have to surprise yourself once in a while. You tend toward hubris otherwise. You start believing that the longer you live, the wiser you become. That is the greatest mistake we inherited from our parents. Who inherited it from theirs. The cycle has been perpetually wrong. And nobody is correcting it. The truly wise have no business thinking about wisdom. It is precisely the absence of self-regard that makes someone wise.
We need to pursue a subject that unsettles the mind. Without seeking the purpose behind the learning. Not everything is going to be useful. It might turn out to be. But that is not the point. You need a sense of wonder so you know the world is larger than what you can feel. I am a student of history. I haven't studied it academically. But I love it. And I will continue to love it.
My love of history has no practical contribution to my life. Or so I believe. Except for the trivia I occasionally offer in conversations that catches people off guard. Or that my understanding of the world has shifted. It has made me humble. More forgiving. But I didn't begin because I wanted to impress anybody. I was pursuing curiosity. History made me wonder about a great many things. The answers I found surprised me even more. They made me even more curious.
But that was not enough. I started exploring psychology. Dark psychology. I tracked down the best books on the subject. Written by experts. Downloaded PDFs of books long out of print. The purpose was not to become a therapist. But to engage with the world through wonder. Through curiosity. Through the need to understand. Not to arrive at conclusions. But simply to navigate it with more ease.
There are many people who do things purely for the love of it. Because it makes them curious. Because it lifts their mind out of the mundane. I am not talking about a hobby. That is something different. Pursuing something that expands your mind. That fills you with a new perspective. That genuinely surprises you — that is what must be sought.
Your mind requires expansion. Your thought process must be refreshed. It must be challenged. The more you pursue wonder and surprise through learning, the sharper your thinking becomes. You begin to intuitively grasp differing perspectives. You grow more willing to hold them without resistance. You learn that two people can both be right.
Not everything has to have meaning. In the name of pragmatism, do not torment the inner child. Childlike curiosity is the only thing that keeps us truly alive. We can find meaning in material pursuits. But for now, go inward and ask what makes you curious. Then pursue it until you have reached the very end.