It is up to us to desire to wonder NOT up to our ability to wonder, to wonder about things

I don’t totally agree with Albert Knox about the fact that “It seems as if in the processes of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world”. My reason for disagreement with this theory is that the ability to wonder and to think is always going to remain with us so long as we have a functioning brain. The ability to wonder may not always appear but does it mean that the ability is lost? It may just be hidden in the back of our minds, and it is up to us to show that we are capable of wondering. It is up to us to desire to wonder NOT up to our ability to wonder, to wonder about things.

On the other hand, I do agree with Albert’s theory about not wondering or perhaps wondering much less as we grow up. This is because as we grow up, we tend to become “wiser”, and we learn to accept that things are the way they are and that there needn’t be an explanation for every single thing, as we are alright with the fact that they are just there. Like Sophie, I feel that it isn’t “right to live the world without at least inquiring where it came from”. I’m sure most of us at one point in our lives whether when we were little or even now as teenagers, wondered where the world came from and why we are here in the first place. These questions come naturally in our minds and when they do come into our minds, we tend to think about the answers to some extent. However it is the amount that we would think about the answers that is in debate here. I think it is the amount we as teenagers or adults would think about the answers to the philosophical questions in life; Albert tries to teach Sophie about, and to embrace life with “an inquiring mind”.

Before Albert Knox came into Sophie’s World as the sender of the anonymous letters, she was growing up without “an inquiring mind”. Albert had “saved” her from her otherwise growing ignorance. He had made her see that life and the world is full of wonders and wanders. She had begun to see the world from a different perspective, however in a before seen light to her (when she was a baby). Sophie probably used to “bow-wow” to everything, from food to what she saw around her. She had even experienced many philosophical thoughts for the “first time in her life”. After reading each of Albert’s letters, she couldn’t stop thinking about the philosophical questions about the world. She had “felt it wasn’t right to live the world without at least inquiring where it came from”. She had learnt to embrace life properly and to keep an open mind to everything; from the Garden of Eden, to where the world came from.

In my opinion, it is obvious that babies are a curious bunch, and that adults perhaps don’t feel the need to be so curious as being curious once about these things may seem enough. That proves that when we were babies, we were the most curious as we could get, and that as we grow older just the desire to wonder diminishes, and NOT the ability to wonder. We as growing people choose when to wonder and when to just accept things the way they are without feeling the need to inquire them. It doesn’t mean we are somewhat ignorant it just means that we have grown up and realized that we can’t get the answers to everything in life.