By T.J. Ray
Columnist
At odd moments of the day I wonder about wonder. Lest you think me round the bend
for that, consider that I am not claiming any authority on the subject as does one fellow
who lauds himself as the world’s leading wonder authority.
I wonder how he achieved that lofty distinction. Are there schools that teach wonder?
It’s clear that many schools don’t incubate any wonder at all in their students. Evidently
this guy travels a lot and produces long lists of exotic wonders.
On his website, Hillman Wonders of the World, may be found not just the Seven Natural
Wonders of the World but a list of the 100 Wonders of the World. If that doesn’t satisfy
you, he also iterates the top 1000. One of his Wonders is the Las Vegas Strip at Night.
A while back a friend told me he now understood what motivated Steve Jobs to name
things as his company did — iPad, iPhone, iMac. After reading Leonard Read’s
intriguing essay “I, Pencil,” I agree with him. Take a few minutes and read Read. You
might want to have a pencil in hand as you do so. You may find that a simple yellow
Monarch #2 is a wonderful creation.
Perhaps some wonder has an answer. For instance, the existence of the ancient sea
creature, the kraken, may be proved by the markings on bone of the remains of nine 45-
foot ichthyosaurs during the Triassic period, 248 to 206 million years ago.
Another wonder, Sunoco, Citgo, British Petroleum and other companies can drill,
recover, refine and transport 1 oz. of crude oil for around a penny and a half while the
post office needs 42 cents to get a letter across a street. Note that it’s the Post Office
that is sinking in red ink, not the oil companies.
Poor old stone-deaf Ludwig von Beethoven could hear music in his head long after
deafness muted the world for him. Makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
The word “wonder” gets spoken so often that I thought I should look it up to remind
myself what folks were talking about. Most dictionaries says something like this:
Something strange and surprising; a cause of surprise, astonishment, or admiration.
The verb that spins off the noun signals speculative curiosity.
Someone might say, “That building is a wonder” or “I wonder how hummingbirds make
their whirring sound.” You see, of course, that a list of things that might cause wonder
could well tabulate a hundred, a thousand, a million claims.

Quite possibly life becomes humdrum about the same time we lose our sense of
wonder. Maybe at that point in time life becomes less productive. Think of the old
things around you that you see with fresh eyes and appreciation after you’ve been
away for a while. Remember the joy of running into someone dear whom you haven’t
seen in years. Those Eureka moments brighten your life.
Sadly, the speed of life today leaves us little time to wonder. And the natural wonders
of the world have been supplanted by the latest technological gizmos. Sadder still, we
no longer challenge kids to speculate. They’re too busy texting Google to find what
someone else found before them.
As G. K. Chesterton observed, “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of
wonders.”