Absence makes the heart grow fonder

He means that we are like robots. We were born into this world and once we had a routine going we just kept to it. I disagree that adults “lose the ability to wonder”. I would say they don’t lose it, but they don’t always use it, and it’s not just adults. You see kids playing around on PSPs and whatnot, they don’t seem to be wondering about the world. They just don’t wonder as much because they don’t need to. They can but they don’t have to. Life throws us so many obstacles and we don’t have the time to think and instead we worry about what is more important at present.

Sophie suggests in the novel that what we do and learn are such trivial things. Are they? If I’m worried about my homework and IB grades, how is that trivial if it is going to affect my future, my life? People just accept the fact that it is a blessing to be alive and want to make something of it or people just take life for granted.

Here is an example to re-instate that the ability of wonder is just pushed back, waiting to flourish when it needs to. People who come back from death’s door, life threatening situations begin to appreciate what it means to alive and every little thing in life. In hostage scenes in movies, people are always telling each other “I love you so much,” showing that it takes a life threatening situation for us to realize that we need to appreciate everything we have.

I don’t think it’s an age thing. Sometimes an unusual perspective will set us thinking about the world. For instance, when people saw the view of the earth from space for the first time. They saw this planet as a whole and began to wonder and realize that we are part of this global community. Perhaps the reason we are so blasé about the world is because we are bombarded with information from the media. We know there are things out there we don’t know, so when we see it for the first time, it may not be such a shock because we know it is new and that’s that. Get over it.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”. What is habitual to you, you don’t think twice about. Take a wife for example, when they are around, they nag and cook and fuss (stereotypically) but when they are gone, you miss that nagging and cooking and fussing. What is habitual to you, you don’t think twice about but when you lose it, you would wish that you could go back in time and value it all.