Albert Knox states that "It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world."
I personally do not agree with Albert Knox. I do not believe that as human beings grow older they lose the ability to wonder. It is just that as they grow older they gain knowledge and expierience of the world and what is around them that when they encounter something slightly abnormal like a magician pulling a rabbit out of an empty hat or apples growing out of nowhere from a tree, they don't stop wondering... they are still perplexed by these things but because of the knowledge and expierience they have gained throughout their lives, they put aside their curiosity and just accept the fact that these things are supposed to happen. Again this doesn't mean humans have lost their skepticism and their ability to wonder. It just means they are no longer confounded by these things either because they have become used to seeing them or just because they know that that was supposed to happen so they don't stop and think. "how did the rabbit or apple appear out of nowhere?"
As we grow older we have more things to do which occupies our time, which means that as humans grow older they don't lose their ability to wonder; it just means that they have so many things occupying them that they no longer have the time to wonder.
For example, in the book when baby Thomas and Mom sees Dad flying and floating up on the ceiling both of their initial reactions were different. Thomas' reaction was "daddy's flying!" whilst the mom's reaction as she saw this was to "scream in fright". This just proves that the mom has grown up and learnt that humans cannot fly which is why she reacted in such a manner. On the other hand looking at it from baby Thomas' point of view, he is still young and and has a lot of time to learn new things and he doesn't realize that this isn't supposed to happen and doesn't find it strange and just presumes that it is normal.
So my opinion is that as we grow older and are confronted with these queries which force us to wonder, we choose to ignore them or simply not to question them because most of the time, they are usually inconclusive and ends up frustrating us.
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2 comments:
I do agree with most of what you are saying, however, when you gave an example of the rabbit/apple appearing out of nowhere, wouldn't it be able to be because we have accepted the fact that some questions cannot be answered, therefore we just leave the questions behind instead of being "used to" seeing them or because the result is predictable? (chapter 2 pg 13 "it is easier to ask philosophical questions than to answer them" )
It's true that many times people are distracted by other things in life, but personally I find it quite unsatisfying to be left dangling with an unanswered query. I guess that the ability to wonder really comes from the person's personality, (regardless of the outcome)whether or not they have a curious mind- which is really the foundation to the art of questioning and thinking..
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