By most reports, the book-of-the-year is Richard Holmes' "The Age of Wonder." He recalls an earlier time when science and scientists were more of a cottage industry in which amateurs could speculate about their world and its mysteries. Today, however, it seems science and scientists do not deal in wonders to experience, but rather problems to be solved. Personally, I think there's something missing in that...!
Granted, if you are of the mind that our cosmos and our species have somehow evolved out of time and space, then yeah everything around you is a problem which invites science's mantra: Truth-by-testing. On the other hand, if you too got C's in chemistry, you may be more amazed by what you don't know than by what you're sure you can know.
Sounds anti-intellectual...? Probably is. And yet, the intellect is not necessarily our greatest gift. I'm inclined toward our imagination. And so when I stand in awe of a furious winter sky or a rhapsodic spring garden or a brilliant summer harvest or a young long-haired mother cherishing her infant, I slip into this conviction that there's no chemistry test for this. I don't really have to define its parts to experience its totality.
I don't remember who said this, but I know I would have enjoyed a long Italian dinner and wine with him/her: "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived!" I know it wasn't my chemistry teacher...
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If there were more chemistry teachers in the world, there would be much less fun in the world.
ReplyDeleteIn the times we are living in these days, I "wonder" about everything lately! No chemistry teacher can answer these questions.
ReplyDeleteSheila, you're right. No chemistry teacher. Perhaps a spiritual teacher? Pick any religion -- they all have some good ones...
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