Ikigai Thought for Today: Philosophy of Wonder
To View the World Like a Child
Audio narration by David Marlow
This reflection by Jostein Gaarder challenges us to embrace the wonder of a child to become good philosophers.
“So now you must choose...
Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so?
To children, the world and everything in it is new, something that gives rise to astonishment. It is not like that for adults.
Most adults accept the world as a matter of course. This is precisely where philosophers are a notable exception.
A philosopher never gets quite used to the world. To him or her, the world continues to seem a bit unreasonable - bewildering, even enigmatic.
Philosophers and small children thus have an important faculty in common. The only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wonder…”
Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
I’ve heard that in the end, we are all philosophers. That can only be true if we embrace a childlike wonder. In his teaching, Jesus admonished his followers that to enter the kingdom of Heaven they needed to be like children.
I take that to mean unless we approach life with the openness, humility, and wonder of a small child, we can't truly grasp the greatest mysteries of existence – those very enigmas that keep philosophers in a state of perpetual amazement.
🌀 Reflection:
🌿 What would it be like to view everything as new, like a child?
🌱 Have we as adults hidden that ability in order to be ‘adult?’
🌿 What is the connection between this childlike approach to being a philosopher and living out our greatest purpose?
Quest well
Hmmmmm… I’m not sure I fall into either child like wonder or curious philosophy.
I suppose I’d prefer to express it this way: I walk with an appreciation of all things I see, and I choose to see miracles in the mundane,
"Approach life with the openness, humility, and wonder of a small child to truly grasp the greatest mysteries of existence."
It seems everything around us is meant to grind us down and making us accept everything as it appears. Then play by those rules. That can be very frustrating if we've never grown up to "playing by the rules". I say - never give up. Never give in.
Earlier today I told my son - "You are not wrong about all those things you said about unfairly being expected to operate on the same level as everyone else. We just need to figure out how to beat the system." A part of us starts being forced to "grow up" around the age of 8. The lucky ones never actually fully do.