Instead, they consider it fragile and threatened, more an object of pity than of wonder. Our poor, miserable little culture seems to have lost its capacity to wonder and with it, its ability to celebrate. The old movies remember a happier time when, in our naivet and ignorance, we thought that there was still something to celebrate. Wonder is not born of ignorance, but of mystery. To be in wonder, we must be as attentive as we possibly can to what actually happens.
Wonder requires knowledge, it literally feeds upon it.
Let s explore a few examples. In generations past, the birth of a child was a source of wonder. Now, however, we have ceased to contemplate the event itself, and have focused, instead, upon the narrow question of how we might manipulate it. Our knowledge of certain particulars has increased, but we have ceased altogether to consider the whole. The mystery has fallen away because, in our rush to analyze certain particulars, we are in ignorance of the whole.