We haven't lost control of our ability to wonder

Alberto Knox believes that as we grow older we “lose the ability to wonder”. Some may agree with his point of view as, as we grow old we get so caught up in work and life that we don’t have the time to wonder about the things that happen around us and just accept the standards and expectations the society provides for us. Our wisdom of the world develops through time, and our ability to wonder is “lost”. However, some may disagree with Knox as they believe that many people still have the ability to wonder, just that it has been “pushed into the background” it still happens on a day to day basis and when people grow old, their ability to wonder slowly crawls back up “the fine hairs of the fur”.

When we were infants we were desperate to learn about new things and experience everything and anything we could, but as we grow “older and wiser we may feel somewhat exhausted by a child’s enthusiasm”. This may be because we get used to the things around us, so our curiosity starts to diminish, as we gain personal experience through time. Additionally society has helped us create standards and expectations of everything in life, so we as adults no longer have to wonder about why things happen, and why things don’t happen as we just simply acknowledge the facts provided by the society. We also don’t have the time to wonder about complex questions we know we won’t have an answer to, such as ‘Where did God come from?’ Since time is limited, it is not unnatural that most people would turn their backs on too complex things.

However, we must take notice that when we grow old we regain the will to wonder, the ability to wonder and the necessity to wonder. In the novel “Sophie’s World”, Sophie’s grandmother “never realized how rich life was until” she was told that she was ill. As we grow old and weary we start to wonder about the point of life as we finally have the time to think life through, reminiscing the past. Sometimes when we hear about tragic death of innocent people, we wonder what the point in life is if we’re going to die anyways? Or how much a soul costs if it’s so fragile. The ability to wonder is always there, lingering in the background but we just need an incident to bring us back.

I agree with Knox to some extent as our ability to wonder may be pushed into the background but it doesn’t mean its “lost” we could easily regain it and “climb up the fine hairs of the fur in order to stare right into the magician’s eyes”. We could never lose the ability to wonder, even on a day to day basis we wonder, and question ourselves if we should do or say certain things, is this not called wondering? As we grow up we have less time to wonder, less will to wonder and therefore less ability to wonder don’t mean we’ve lost control of it.