The Awe of Life

Rediscovering the emotion of beauty

Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live the “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.

Intro to Monthly Theme

The experience of being alive is filled with so many things, so many magical wonders, so many emotions and experiences for us to have.

Lurking within the human-experience is the sublime—this feeling of beauty and grandeur that can leave us breathless.

The sublime is all around us, from the natural world to the skyscrapers we work in.

This feeling of the sublime sometimes creeps up on us when we least expect it—when we see a sunset, or we share an intimate conversation with someone, or the birth of our child.

Throughout life we’re peppered with these moments that remind us just how deep and rich life is, if only we can take ourselves out of the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day.

For the month of November, we’re exploring the theme of the sublime and we begin with diving into the emotion of awe.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and science.”

Albert Einstein
Awe

Awe is all around us yet seldom seen.

Awe itself is an emotion that is triggered by vast mysteries we don’t understand according to the psychologist Dacher Keltner. It is a transformative emotion, one that not only exposes us to immense beauty and depth, but also reminds us of our place in a bigger whole.

In ancient times, awe brought people together through shared experiences. Naturally occurring events such as an earthquake or rainbow would have been seen as either good or bad signs sent down from the gods. These big moments would have invoked some sort of awe within our tribes, and we’d have performed rituals as a group in order to “please” and “give thanks” to the gods.

“God so often appears in extraordinary stories of awe; we invoke the Divine to explain the sublime,” writes Keltner.

With the advent of science and our ability to better understand the world we inhabit, the divine aspect of awe has been often dropped along with that of the collective experience.

Instead, nowadays awe is relegated to vacations and time away from the office.

So much of our lives today have been removed from how we lived for thousands of years. And while the advancements made are great for the progress of our species, it’s simultaneously moved us further away from experiencing awe on a regular basis.

We don’t provide ourselves time to just be and experience, rather, we’re constantly trying to complete deadlines, prepare for tomorrow, and accomplish as much as we can in a day.

“Awe occurs in a realm separate from the mundane world of materialism,” writes Keltner, “…a realm beyond the profane that many call the sacred.”

But without this experience of awe, without being able to live in those moments, we miss a key aspect of our existence. We miss out on just taking in what it means to be alive, to see the world for what it possesses.

Awe grounds us in reality and opens us to learning about the workings of the world we inhabit.

One can take solace in looking at a mountain and realizing that the rock has been there for thousands of years and will be there long after we’re gone.

There is a grounding in this awe, a re-centering, an ability to be reminded of what is worth prioritizing.

Sometimes awe brings us to tears at the sight of something such as a sunset or the birth of a child. Other times it reminds us of the ephemeral nature of existence with the loss of a friend or loved one.

We needn’t go far to find awe. One can tune into the emotion by just being more present and observing life with a keen eye for all that is around.

We humans evolved from apes and in a few short hundred years since the Industrial Revolution have managed to fly beyond our planet and into space, built medicines that have eradicated diseases, and have extended our lifespan.

If you can’t find awe in our every day existence, then turn your gaze towards the stars and feast your eyes on just how vast the gaze is.

When we look up in the night sky and see the hundreds of stars, we can be reminded that our planet is just one of many circling a star.

And that star itself is one of billions in the galaxy.

And that galaxy is one of many billions in the universe, each with their own stars and planets.

Awe is all around us, from the ground we walk on to the stars above.

We simply have to open our eyes and drink it in.

As the naturalist Rachel Carson once said, “Drink in the beauty and wonder at the meaning of what you see."

Until next time,

D.A. DiGerolamo

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