To be in awe

...lose yourself in the experience. Don't deconstruct magic.

Henry Farrer’s response to awe and wonder: try to capture it in a painting! A noble hope indeed, for all kinds of art. Including yours?

Just in the past ten days I have come across an interesting collection of travel articles and a handful of pop science books¹ about the healing power of awe. I also received a launch copy of a book I was honored to edit, one that is so full of wonder that it must be read slowly or not at all.

“‘Read it slowly or not at all’?

Can’t I just skim it or have NotebookLM summarize it for me?

Sam Bankman-Fried says an entire book is a waste of time, whether you write one or read one. Sum it up for me. I’m in a hurry. Get to the point.”

And that, dear friends, is indeed the point.

I am thrilled that awe and wonder are finally catching the attention of the nonfiction information digestion factory that we call “trade publication,” and I find it genuinely interesting to read the bullet-point lists describing how, precisely, to experience a sense of awe and wonder.

That’s exactly the wrong frame of mind to experience it.

For instance, number one on the list of Dacher Keltner’s Eight Types of Awe is “Moral Beauty: witnessing acts of kindness, courage, or self-sacrifice that inspire admiration and uplift the spirit.”

Yes. Love that.

But if you pick up When Breath Becomes Air and read it with pen in hand, thinking “okay, let’s see, kindness… courage… and what? Self-sacrifice. I’ll skim through and look for those things and I’ll just read those passages,” your longing for awe will be disappointed. Or worse, ask a chatbot to summarize examples of courage from Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and read those instead of wading into the book.

Shortcuts don’t work when it comes to feeling a sense of awe or wonder because looking at an experience isn’t the same thing as losing yourself in an experience.

CS Lewis once described it as the difference between looking at the motes of dust suspended in a shaft of sunlight shining through a hole in the roof of a dark barn, versus stepping into the light and looking along the shaft to see the sun itself. (PSA: do not do this without proper eclipse goggles, the damage can be permanent. But now I have pulled you out of the glorious metaphor: do not do this either! Awe and wonder require shedding a sense of self-consciousness and immersing oneself in the awe-inspiring moment)

Those first two destinations might inspire awe and wonder, but the practical pitches, the “Learn More” buttons, and especially the backpacker checking a train schedule in the fourth pane— pfft, awe dispelled. But hey, maybe I can save 15% on a rental car…

Aside from losing yourself in a great book, vacation or adventure travel is probably the most common way we lose ourselves in experiences of delight, awe, and wonder that is somehow far greater than ourselves. (Oh yeah, movies... those are popular too.)

Here are the covers of two books, both of which happen to be blue, both of which deal with “awe inspiring moments.”

One examines the phenomenon of awe and wonder. It peers at the shaft of sunlight, measuring it and its effect on those who step into it. It tries to analyze, explain, and judge.

The other focuses on unexpected things in life which inspire curiosity, awe, yearning, and wonder. It immerses us in these mysteries and delights in the myriad shafts of light that pierce our humdrum lives, if we are willing to abandon a superficial “reading of the text” we are living. It explores without explaining, and asks questions that only the reader can answer fully for themselves—answers that come from the heart, the living soul, not from a deconstructive autopsy.

I welcome this recent surge of analytical attention for what used to be called “escapism” or “romanticism” and I’m delighted that they are all prescribing higher and more regular doses of awe. (I wonder whether someone will come up with a “recommended daily dose”?) But don’t mistake a book about awe for a book that will inspire awe. Go ahead and plan wisely for your vacation so that it will actually happen, so that it will go smoothly enough to allow you to experience the thrill or the comfort, the solitude or solidarity, or whatever sort of wonder, awe, and delight you hoped for… but when you embark on your journey, immerse yourself in it, and stop focusing on the meta-details that distract you from the experience itself.

(Or, you know, immerse yourself in a great book for a couple of hours!)

What’s your favorite book (or movie or travel adventure etc.) that pulled you fully into its world, in a satisfying or awe-inspiring way? If you can’t narrow it to one, lists are welcome!

1. Awestruck (Jonah Paquette), Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder (Dacher Keltner), Curious (Ian Leslie), The Power of Moments (Chip & Dan Heath)