Humble Wonder

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Recommended: Chapter 1 part 1 the study of human development

Memory is a marvelous aspect of who we are as human beings. It can produce delight, warning, affection, thought, sentimentality, and feelings of commitment. When memory is invoked, we are called to attention. The past becomes present and we become present to events in the past in a way that pushes us into the future. Memory is the way past events and commitments “live” for us and continue to touch us in a very real way.

Our most significant memories are shaped by who we are and what is important to us. They are often guided by those around us, who help us to remember. Memories can be triggered by things: objects, pictures, music, tastes and smells, colors and physical feelings. To quote Cesare Pavese: “we do not remember days, we remember moments.” Shared memories connect people, create a sort of legacy. They reinforce our sense of community. One reason why memory loss due to illness or old age is so tragic is that it can distance a person from loved ones who have shared common life.

Memories can be painful recalling events and moments we just want to forget. Either searched or unwanted, they have one common pattern, they travel through time. What is time? We can define it from many prospective. We perceive time as we create it in our minds. The past is made of a recorded memory into the brain, of which the present is its awareness, while the future does not yet exist. Physicists conceive time as a presence of motion and forces in the Universe caused by the expansion of space. (Time physics) Is time just an illusion?

How does Walker Percy conceive time when in “The loss of the creature,” he writes that for the Gran Canyon’s tourist there is no present, but only the past of what has been formulated and seen and the future o...

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...rich his life and truly, honestly enjoy and understand the surrounding world and all it has to offer. Could the answer be in rediscovering the humble wonder of the child within us? The history of human beings progresses through constant discoveries of those that do, think different, do see the world through original eyes, without arrogance, with humble heart, seeking answers to the unknown.

The essence is to keep looking for new trails and frontiers, either cultural, earthly or space, it want matter, as long as we keep evolving. To be spectators or creators is up to each one of us and what we choose to be.

Works Cited

http://www.timephysics.com/

http://www.etni.org.il/deadpoet.htm

David Bartholomae, Anthony Petrosky, Ways of reading, An Anthology for writers, Bedford/St.Martin’s, Boston-New Yprok, 9th Edition, Walker percy ,The loss of the creature p460.Print.

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