by Kerry zagarella,
I grew up in a football family. We were indoctrinated into specific team cults. We were taught what teams to support and what teams to despise; Dallas Cowboys anyone? All day on New Year's day college football filled the small fuzzy tv screen. My favorite part was watching The Rose Bowl parade in the morning. My mother loved it too and every few minutes would comment how she couldn't believe that the floats were all made of flowers and plant materials. Her curiosity and enthusiasm fed my childhood imagination as I envisioned the motor and pistons to be made of bamboo stalks and woven root systems. I tried to see past the little lady in the huge antebellum flowered hoop dress into the makings of the trailers and trucks that not only pulled the floats, but were made from flowers as well. I was given time, “to wonder”. Thank goodness no one told me that making an engine out of plant material that could withstand the heat, fuel and friction of driving was not possible, I could only see daisy head gears and cat tail axles.
Yesterday, on New Year’s day, the college football games were on. I missed the parade, but could recall the wonderfilled viewings of my childhood. This is how I want to go into 2025. I want to face the new year with wonder, trying to avoid the obvious darkness, “I wonder how we will survive fascism” (that, my friends, will require concrete thought and action but may be more possible if we allow ourselves to be replenished by daily wonder). It is simple if we can momentarily stop to feel and observe the natural world around us, beyond explanations. You can also hang out with as many 5 year old children as you can, for as long as you can. Wonder is their business! My life long career as a Kindergarten teacher blessed me with the daily opportunity to witness the wonder, curiosity, and imagination used to translate the world around.
In first grade science some learn about the metamorphosis of a legged creature to a flying creature. The life cycle of a monarch caterpillar to butterfly is described with images and text arranged in a circle. The text typically describes each step. We can follow each logical step until the breakdown from legged to primordial gel to winged beast. It is something that science can explain, but also cannot. And what of the gold leaf beads that create a crown on the top of each chrysalis? How does that happen outside, while the magic goes on inside? I wonder.
There is the small morning glory flower that survives in a driveway crack all winter and forces its fragile petals through cement towards the warming sun and tilted earth. The same flower that can tear apart in your clumsy hand, pushes concrete aside to grow.
The bees do a “waggle dance” to illustrate an aerial map directing the workers to a found food source. They dance!
There is the vinyl, pressed with grooves that allow vibrations to be transformed by a small needle and turned into a song that can fill a room and change you.
The shooting star that you wished on last night, raced across the sky hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of years ago. There is a perfectly sound explanation for that, if you want it.
There are underground communication systems between “mother” trees and their offspring.
Though science has explanations for events in our natural world, wonder and curiosity are central to our pursuit of “knowledge”. Wonder fuels our pursuit and it creates possibilities not yet known to reason.
I retired this year from my lifelong dream career of teaching Kindergarten. I miss the children’s innate curiosity, their desire to learn about the world around them and to do real work that is meaningful and connected to others. I hope schools return to embracing students’ interests as the most powerful educational tool available. What do they wonder about? If they wonder, they care, and that is where learning begins.
This year I may pretend I am on vacation and view my surroundings with the same relaxed awe. I can travel around my house taking vacation photos to appreciate the miraculous placement of objects. Today there is a mighty wind outside. I have had to reset my trash cans upright several times and collect the trash flying into the backyard. I am mesmerized by the swaying trees and wonder how the birds fly in this weather. Where are they? The neighbors’ chimes are singing and can be heard in the sound collage of wind, clacking winter branches, shivering dry leaves and flying trash. The clouds on the other side of this tree dance are sitting still, like me, taking in this one miraculous moment of vacation. I wonder where we’ll go next.
Happy wonder-filled New Year!
It takes the Earth one year to complete the revolution around the sun traveling at 67,000 miles per hour.
Have a great day!
It takes 24 hours for the Earth to complete rotation traveling at 1,000 miles per hour.
The sun appears to set and rise everyday. Breathe the colorful air.
Have a great vacation.
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