"THE JOY OF WONDER"
By Ron Ewart
© Copyright April, 2000

At night, as the soft padded paws of the great predator stop in a jungle clearing and the eyes of the giant feline look up into the night sky to witness a streak of light passing before the stars, does the big cat "wonder" as to what the light streak might mean, or from whence it came, or what caused it to emit light, or what is it made of, or why is it there at that precise moment? Does he ponder as to whether the streak of light was in front of the other points of light, in between the points of light or behind the points of light? Does he guess as to how far away the streak might be or how fast it is going? Does he have a concept of time, speed, distance or light? Maybe. Probably not.

However, does a little boy or girl witnessing the same event, ask those questions? Some do and it's that "some" that has vaulted the hunter gathers of thousands of years ago to a point in time and space where the answers to the questions who, what, where, when, why and how have allowed man to press ever onward and outward on a preordained destiny that will lead him, albeit haltingly, to the stars and to the infinitely small depths of matter and energy as well.

Probably wrapped up in the DNA molecule, locked in each cell of contemporary humans, is a gene, not yet isolated, containing chemical protein that may be radically different than the genes in the DNA molecules in all living things on Earth. No matter that it may have taken millions of years for that one gene to appear along the evolutionary stream. No matter that its appearance may have been a total random act of nature, a freak, a mutation, or that somehow it was divinely ordained. But that gene, or a combination of genes, created a path for man that has lead him, in 5,000 years, to the brink of jumping off this once infinitely large planet, into the Solar System and on into the galaxy and then to the Universe. How exciting to be at the bottom of the staircase of that climb and "wonder" what we might find.

All animal and plant life on Earth have one overriding prime directive that takes precedence over all others; self-preservation by survival and procreation. Almost 100 percent of the effort to survive by any living thing is expended towards preservation and procreation. That prime directive is programmed into the chemistry of all living things.

Man is also endowed with this programming, nor would he have survived this long with out it. However, mixed in with all of the other pre-programmed directives is the one emotion that is the catalyst for the drive that has taken him to the point where he is no longer the slave to his environment but has become a net changer-controller of the environment. This may ultimately be his undoing, but my instinct says not.

What ever the gene or gene combination that crystallizes the emotion of "wonder" to well up inside certain humans may one day be isolated. Its isolation may be a milestone, in the short term, but the effect of the gene is much more important than the cause or specific location in the DNA molecule. For it is the effect of "wonder" that will have empowered man to accomplish that very isolation.

It is the effect of "wonder" that allows the young, (especially the young) the less fortunate, the intellectual, the rich or the poor and almost all members of the human race, at some time, to look at, hear, feel or touch some particular event or a thing or a happening and be amazed, be awed, be ferociously curious, be astonished, be surprised, shocked or bewildered. The triggered emotion resulting from that "wonder" drives man in a totally different way than his warm and cold blooded Earth mates. Anyone without this sense of "wonder" is not fully alive.

The causes of wonder are, without a doubt, infinite. However, the result of selective "wonder" has given us discoveries of the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of gravity, the quantum theory, the theory of relativity, the four distinct forces in nature, archeology, biology, zoology, paleontology and all of the other "ologies". Selective "wonder" has lead us to an understanding of our bodies and the inner workings of our brains that has resulted in modern medicine and the behavioral sciences. It has truly helped us find our "point of reference" in the Universe, as we know it today.

As the human population grew and selective "wonder" evolved, and writing and printing allowed the selective "wonder" to be dispersed to an ever-increasing audience, information about our life, the planet Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, the Cosmos and the microscopic world increased at an exponential rate. Each new discovery was built on the last, the speed of discovery always accelerating.

"Wonder" and the path to selective "wonder" are predominantly spontaneous in humans. The act or emotion of "wonder" may also exist in animals but their ability to communicate that wonder in a language we humans understand is severely limited, if it exists at all.

But each one of us, sometime in our life, no matter what our situation might be, has experienced spontaneous "wonder". Whether as a child, teenager, young or mature adult, the ability and emotion of "wonder" resides in all of us. The emotion may be fleeting or long lasting. It may reside in a childhood memory or it may lead some of us into the path of selective "wonder". In the final analysis, it is that same innocent "wonder" that will be our inevitable salvation. Some may argue otherwise but they are surely wrong.

No one has truly experienced a full life if they have not seen, in the soft, shining face of a young boy or girl, the awe of an event that the child has not seen before. Or had to answer the flood of questions that the "wonder" of the event releases. That precious "wonder" flourishes in a free society of individual rights. It dies when squelched and squeezed into oblivion by an all-powerful government. It is my firm hope and prayer that we as individuals and as a society will foster that "wonder" in all ages, but especially our children. They and their "wonder" and their energy are truly our last great hope. But without individual freedom the smile on their innocent faces and the joy of wonder, will morph into a permanent frown of despair.