Wish, Wonder, Surprise

“The mind is the voyager of journeys, the center of questioning, the conjurer of fear,
the seed of desire, the door of compassion, the creator of joy.”  – Kirkland

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the fundamental emotion
which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”  – Einstein

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”  – Boorstein

“We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”  – Hegel

Imagine

Imagine . . . teleportation.  End of natural death.  Aliens visiting Earth.  The last war.  Fusion as our main source of energy.  Money out of politics.  All of those are fiction, and perhaps they always will be.  Not so long ago, powered flight, electricity, surgery, cars, and computers were also the realm of fiction.  A commonality amongst inventors, social or scientific, casual or infamous, is an active imagination combined with passionate action.  To break that down a bit more, creators of any ilk entreat Wish, open to Wonder, and are readily tickled by Surprise. 

I’ve been asking folks and looking around, and it seems to me that our experience of the nature, intensity, and frequency of Wish, Wonder, and Surprise have changed for the worse.  I definitely do NOT think that there is a dwindling supply of Wishes, that Wonder isn’t plentiful, or that Surprises are doled out in finite quantities at birth.  They are as plentiful to the individual now as they have always been.  But, a thickening of our skin, the cataract-dulling of our eyes, and cacophony of noise has made our senses less acute.  It takes more to “get us going.”  True story:  A thirteen-year-old boy sits slumped on a couch, watching a video about the structure of the universe and the nature of incredible celestial objects.  The drama is interrupted by commercials for Cheetos, Halo 3, and the new BMW convertible.  The boy switches channels for a while, briefly landing on Simpsons’ re-runs, gets up to grab a Red Bull soft drink, returns briefly to the television, and then switches over to playing the most recent video game.  Alone.

Below are some more common ways I believe children and adults experience Wish, Wonder, and Surprise today.

The Difference

Below are some key differences of experiencing and fostering Wish, Wonder, and Surprise at camp.

• Not a kit.  I’ve seen lots of children play with Lego’s, and they usually make what the kit was designed to, or some variation on that theme.  Lego’s used to be sold in boxes with certain numbers of pieces, instead of kits.  Imagination is checked and framed.  Adults, when they do cook, generally follow recipes; rarely do they examine the cupboards and just create (Iron Chef is a show taking that concept to the next level).  Creative and imaginative thought (Wonder and Wish) are touchstones of actions that make differences large and small – see end piece on Creation.
• Engaged with whole self – body, mind, heart, and in a group setting.
• The outcome is unknown.  With rides, books, movies, and traditional theater, there is a singular path that is taken.  Although that path is discovered bit by bit, the imagination is checked by the gutters that keep the ball on the predetermined path.  When campers participate in activities at camp, they influence how it will turn out, and there is room for twists and turns to be created and experienced.
• Campers get a chance to “go outside and play” and actually answer the “Play what?” question themselves.  Imagination is given as free a reign as possible.
• Exploration and adventure.  Children’s automatic environments and behaviors are interrupted.

• Failure and success through unfamiliar and unusual risks.  Discovery of themselves.
• Absence of media – what does Snow White look like?  If your mental image is the Disney one, then you’ve just experienced how media impacts imagination.  Snow White was a book, and the image was the creation of your imagination.  Google Snow White now, and the immediate images that come up under a normal search are the Disney imagines.
• Equalizer – camp turns down many channels that are turned up very high, and turns up others.  Not an iPod – live voices, live instruments, and you are singing, not just listening.  Nothing happens on a screen – you are always looking into the eyes of another human being, right in front of you.  An instant message is a tap on the shoulder.  All games are interactive.
• Intense social nature — living on a submarine or in an orphanage would be intensely social, but besides those extremes, camp is the most social environment possible.  In a constant state of being with others, over a longer period of time, campers experience and develop relationships that stretch both the mind and heart, creating a space where Wish, Wonder, and Surprise have more room to stretch themselves.
• Language of interactive thought.  It has sadly been tried, and we know that it is impossible for a child to learn language from television, even after 13 years of exposure (Genie).  Inspired interaction is the grist for the mill.  Inventions flourish in small groups, which is why Edison had a team in close quarters and Google stresses interactive spaces.  Active, dynamic, pluralistic engagement fosters creative thoughts and endeavors.
• Be at cause, and not effect.  Campers choose the design of their day, instead of traveling a conveyer belt of activities and events designed by someone else.  Campers exist in an environment where they live without punishment, external rewards, guilt, pressure by cool people or those in authority, and instead find themselves the willing participant in responsibility and far greater choice and power.

Ending

• Wish, Wonder, and Surprise that are experienced, richly and deeply, seems to be more muted and infrequent in children now.  Heard of the Old Order Amish?  They live without electricity, engines, and most modern conveniences.  Their experience is extreme in today’s world, but the extreme makes the point of how their simplicity enhances their sense of Wish, Wonder, and Surprise, and their happiness.  Children today have seen so much, that the spark needed to light a passionate fire is a larger and slowly growing one.  At camp, we want to re-sensitize, re-awaken, re-enliven the mind, heart, and spirits of children, so that the small sparks that are everywhere find fertile tender, and that they may know the joy in Wish, Wonder, and Surprise on a daily basis.  It’s everywhere.

Ending Quotes

• Gioia, a poet and the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.  http://www.rakemag.com – “The Death and Life of American Imagination”
  • • “we’ve pawned off the task of imagination to commercial manufacturers of marketing and entertainment. They feed us an endless stream of stock imagery and flashy distractions—‘content’ that comes predigested and does little or nothing in the way of encouraging us to form our own mental images, ideas, or stories. With this type of passive consumption, a person’s imagination is no less an overfed and undernourished couch-potato than her body.”
    • “By ‘free and unstructured play,’ he means activity that is unencumbered by adult direction, and does not depend on manufactured items or rules imposed by someone other than the kids themselves. He is referring to the kind of play that is not dependent on meddling or praise or validation from well-meaning parents on the sidelines.  Interrupted like being awaked from a dream.”
    • “A child who spends a month mastering Halo or NBA Live on Xbox has not been awakened and transformed in the way that child would be by spending time rehearsing a play or learning to draw.”
• “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”  Albert Einstein
• “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”  Edgar Allan Poe
• “A person’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.”  Oliver Wendall Holmes
• “Do you know that in a universe so full of wonders, people have managed to invent boredom. Quite Astonishing.” Terry Pratchett, The Hogfather

Ways to Experience WWS At Home

Wish, Wonder, Surprise . . . consider how you might enrich your family’s life with it throughout the year . . . add summer camp as a powerful, nutritional supplement.

• Ask questions that don’t have yes or no as an answer. Did you ever Wonder why human beings can’t describe the scent of one another in words? We need to use other words, which seem oddly awkward and inept for the task.
• Express Wish, Wonder, and Surprise when you experience them.
• Seek out Wish, Wonder, and Surprise. Take the same space and notice something new. In nature, you can examine closely one square foot, one square yard, or some other small space and really see what all is there.

• Travel, if that is an option. Culture varies within countries, and certainly between them.
• Reduce fear as much as possible. If you know something to be incorrect, ask Socratic questions so that the “answer” is arrived at by the other person. A child can be told they are wrong, or discover the path by which they find themselves right.
• Be willing to say “I don’t know.” And, “Let’s find out!” Or, “Let’s think about it!”
• Commit to experiencing one new thing every weekend.
• PLAY! The opportunities are everywhere, and play is the natural expression of Wish, Wonder, and Surprise.

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