I disagree with Knox’s statement that people “lose the ability to wonder about the world” as they grow up. In my opinion, we never truly lose the ability to wonder, but instead we become too familiarised to what we were taught, to what society tells us to truly ‘wonder’. I believe age only plays a small role in our “ability” to wonder. As a little kid, we have yet to experience the world and to know what to expect – as demonstrated by little Thomas in the book. Who says that just because we’re old, we don’t and can’t wonder? That isn’t true. Perhaps, we just lose the will to wonder because that may damage what we already know to be true.
Growing up, we become accustomed to many things in life. We start taking them for granted and we then do not need to question why things are here, and what their purpose is. In a way, wondering about life and overanalysing could mean realising everything we previously were taught by society was ‘wrong’. This is the easy way out: we take in what society feeds us and do not question the ideology behind it. When we were younger, we would ask questions at things we would now, perhaps, find petty. Almost every child would have asked the question ‘why is the sky blue?’ or ‘Why is grass green?’ but these questions do not matter to us now. Whether you think the sky is blue because “it just is” or because of the whole science thing, it doesn’t matter. Almost every question we have, society will provide an answer for us.
And we can either choose to believe it, or not.
A person never loses the ability to wonder. What we may lose is our will to wonder, a will to think for ourselves. What with society feeding us answers to almost any question, do we really need to think for ourselves? Even when we go shopping nowadays, we take our friends: “Should I buy this top? What do you think?”
So, in my opinion, people never lose the ability to wonder. When there is a will, you will wonder because people are naturally curious beings.
1 comment:
Hey I really agree that we start to take things for granted when we're more grown up! This is because we already have our way of imagination and our way of doing things.
Your point of a baby would have asked why the sky is blue. Does this mean age really does play a role? Or is this just the depth of questions that changes with age? I think the latter. We would wonder about more complicateed things, like relationships with others. Otherwise I generally agree with what you have said.
Post a Comment