A few weeks ago while attending Shoreline Universalist, the discussion revolved around the word wonder. Hearing that service alone, convinced me that I found the right place for my spiritual practice, because everything that was discussed I have in one way or another written about here at Wisdom and Life. One fine example is right here:
Natalie Merchant’s Wonder
and here:
An Overflowing Faith
Images from:
CJP Photos
It isn’t simply that Shoreline Universalist and I are on the same page when it comes to my feelings on spirituality. There is so much more.
Being a creative, wonder is an important word in my lexicon. For without that word, where would the artists be:
The writers?
The painters?
The photographers?
The actors?
The musicians?
Wonder is what propels creatives forward.
As in:
I wonder what would happen if I put this color paint on the canvas.
I wonder how these words would string together?
I wonder how this would look through my viewfinder?
Being a photographer I’m always using that frame of reference when I’m out photographing. There are countless times I put the camera up to my eye, scanning the scenes. That’s one way I use that word. Another is once I’m home from a photo shoot and I begin editing my photos. When I come across a particular image that catches my eye, I wonder at the colors I captured. Sometimes I don’t even remember taking that particular photo. That’s wonder.
I feel the same way when writing. Wonder, being in the moment, being in the flow; these are all examples of wonder.
So what does the word Wonder mean to you?
Be Happy! Be Well! Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris
Once you realize that life is eternal,
That our souls our eternal,
That we return to light and physical over and over;
We then lose all our distress
We then lose all our fear of dying. For there truly is no end.
Martha Orlando
We can not afford to lose our sense of childlike wonder when looking at the world around us if we wish to create anything. It comes with the territory!
Blessings, Chris!
Dick Sederquist
Like you, like a fellow UU, wonder to me is the source of inspiration. The inventive process to me is iterative starting with question, “What If?” and then following the possible answers to the question until it makes sense based on experience. See my old blog below on the inventive process:
Bingo! – The Inventive Process – Gift or Curse
Procrastination, following my back surgery, has also affected my blogging rate. What to say when all you can think about is how my continuing discomfort and my progress compared with my similar surgery two years ago. I just had my post op review, and as expected, I’m ahead of the curve in the recovery process. That reinforces that fact that I am impatient, but also it’s a window into how my particular mind works, maybe even a generalization in how the human mind works. I work by iteration and comparison. I’ve read that the brain is not so much a computer, but a great comparator, comparing present experience with the old, and projecting the future in a series of iterative scenarios, comparing the outcomes of each scenario until it sounds right, based on our experience. Rather than a flash of brilliance, like that attributed to Einstein, we just random walk, grope and bump our way to a solution. Maybe, he was just much faster in the process. My whole recovery has got me thinking about how I resolve things and try to predict the future when it is totally unknown. Here we go.
Bingo!
I’ve misplaced my reading glasses. Where did I leave them? I start the process by checking every conceivable place where they could be hiding. They are nowhere to be found. The same thing happened to me with a paintbrush that I had used to paint my hatchway with Rustoleum. Figuring it would need another coat, rather than cleaning the brush, I wrapped it a plastic bag to keep it from drying out. I placed it on my workbench in plain sight. When I went to retrieve it two days later, it was gone. Figuring I had lost my mind, I searched every conceivable place where I might have placed it. I even asked my wife if she stole it. Not that I meant it, but sometimes you have to think out of the box to explain something. Bad idea! All I got was a stare and a glare. Unlike my glasses, which I eventually found on my head, I had started the inventive process of coming up with a solution to a problem.
The paintbrush showed up two months later in one of my wife’s craft boxes. Aha! She did steal it! No, it had accidentally slipped off the workbench into the open craft box next to the workbench as my wife was organizing her stuff. Making lists and staying organized is how she deals with life’s questions. She just keeps life under control so it can’t ask questions. Only kidding dear! The paintbrush was now hard as a rock and totally useless. The point I’m trying to make here is that nothing is always obvious when you are trying to come with a solution to a problem. It’s not as obvious as Sherlock Holmes saying “It’s obvious, my dear Watson” unless you have the intellect of Sherlock Holmes.
This brings us to how we go about solving problems and coming up with new ideas and inventions. You may have guessed by now that it is an iterative process. We propose a question to a problem or an issue. We look in all the obvious places, and in each place we ask the same question “Is it here?” We propose a solution. We ask “What if?” Then we examine whether the “what if” rings true or has obvious faults. That sets us off to a new place or new proposal. That may narrow our search as we get closer to a solution or suggest a completely new tact and approach, setting off a new set of “what ifs”, iterations or even multiple iterations. We also become the devil’s advocate, picking apart our answer as we expect our peers may do when they hear our crazy idea. The frenzy in our minds increases, trying to satisfy our own logic and the imagined criticism or critiques of others. This is like arguing your case before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The iterating process goes on and on until we have a solution. Bingo! No wonder we get so tired solving problems or inventing something. It’s an ambivalent process, good when we win, bad because the process of winning is so painful and exhausting. My wife sometimes says I’m talking to myself. I am, and all the other people and Supreme Court justices living in my head. At least, I never get lonely.
So now we have it. We work on things until we stumble on a solution. Hopefully, we don’t step on any toes and do make a few friends along the way. This blog is for you, my good friends. If you have a question, ask away. I’ll talk to my friends on the Supreme Court.
BLOG, Strictly Humor, March 18, 2015
Jean Wise
Wonder is one of my favorite words, Chris. I think it is a powerful word. Even when faced with a difficult situation to ask ourselves, i wonder what this might bring new to my life? Or I wonder what other options there is? Our society doesn’t value curiosity and awe and wonder as much any more – another reason for us creative ones to be willing to continue to wonder and create. Great post!