‘Gob smacked by the beauty and despair of the world…’

Spend the day with a mystic, lunatic, or writer. Or, for that matter, a child (who, if schooling and society don’t manage to weld shut his door to amazement, will no doubt one day become a mystic, lunatic, or writer). These people have their heads screwed on sideways and hobble around gob smacked by the beauty and despair of the world. If you opt to spend the day with a child, try to find a small one, preferably raised by hippies on a commune on the coast, but really any child will work, if you actually pay attention to what they have to show you.

– Munju Ravindra: From the essay, Wonder: A Practice for Everyday Life

13 thoughts on “‘Gob smacked by the beauty and despair of the world…’”

  1. No worries, Amanda! Tell me, is there any way I can get Planet Waves or Word Press to send me a message when there are subsequent posts on a Planet Waves article that I’ve commented on? I forget to check back and then when I do, I have to trawl through pages to find the article if I haven’t bookmarked it. If this were available, or more immediately available, it would encourage more discussion 🙂 Not that PW is short of it!!

  2. ah well, yes karen — the editor of that book, martin keogh, was the contact improv instructor who led the workshop i just did & read the quote to us. for some reason i’d assumed the essay had had a previous “original” home & haven’t had a chance to delve very far into “hope beneath out feet.” sorry about that!

  3. Just checked it out – the essay is one of many included in the book Hope Beaneath Our Feet: Restoring Our Place in the Natural World:

    http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Beneath-Our-Feet-Restoring/dp/1556439199/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306015232&sr=8-1

    Here’s just one of the reviews:
    “This is a wonderful, inspirational book composed of works by thoughtful, intelligent, and caring people discussing the fact that we and our fellow species face extinction if we proceed with life as we have in the last two hundred years. As I continue to struggle with the monumental challenges facing the human psyche, the hope and new ideas embedded in these essays have lifted my flagging spirits. Essential reading.”
    —Helen Caldicott, author of Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer to Global Warming and If You Love This Planet

  4. good question, karen. i have not gone looking, so i’m not sure if the whole piece is available online or only in printed book form. if you turn anything up, let us know!

  5. Beautiful! Is there anywhere we can see the whole essay, Amanda? Thank you so much for sharing this snippet…

  6. Yes, children are the magical conduits of amazing wisdom and sweetness. Listening to them is something we should all do a lot more of.

  7. Well Hello Gorgeous!

    and that’s all I have to say about THAT
    (for now-!)
    back out to the trenches on my ‘computer free’ day-don’t tell-

    Jere: All the Power to You, bro, I Love Lovin’ the Lunatics!! they are a good bunch! kids and lunatics – they both love carousel rides!!yah!!!

    peace.
    stealth Sadge (hiding computer on lap)

  8. happy to share it. the instructor of the contact improv dance workshop i attended yesterday (part two is today) read it to us (along with another) at the end of the class. i found myself telling people there several times of the recent conversation here about touch in our culture; the contact improv community is *all* about ‘touch and release’, sharing sensation and the space of relationship between individuals where the dance exists. it should probably be taught in schools from a young age…

  9. Exactly – Need to let go of the fear topics. On the same subject, ask a crying baby if he remembers Jesus and see what kind of response you get. Remembering why you are here in a physical body would be quite useful really.

  10. This quote reflects a way of viewing the failings of the entirety of human relations in the history of the world, right across religious, cultural, social, economic and geographic divides.

    Discovering again the ‘wisdom of innocence’ would help this tired old world rejuvenate, by rediscovering long lost roots that were always there (thank you, Munju Ravindra) but never flourished as they might have.

    Thanks Amanda for digging this quote out and giving it its rightful place!

  11. Damned straight! That’s the shit right there! Too many folk livin’ like the Now doesn’t matter.. the kiddos know. The ones who haven’t been completely obliterated by adult/societal b.s.. ..Hippies on a commune on the coast.. (technically we were inland in a valley, ..but it was a commune, and there were 10 acres.. and she was by far the coolest peer I’d ever met. For 6 1/2 years). (I let her go to brave the societal mechanations.. I’m always Here).

    Mystic, lunatic, writer, musician, painter, sculptor, poet, cooker, lover, be’er, do’er, live’r,.. More power to you.

    All of you,

    Jere

  12. “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”–Socrates
    Thanks, Amanda, for the great reminder.

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