Open Up And Say Awe

Open Up And Say Awe
By Justin Salter
“But again, we must begin with caretakers, the culture, and the milieu. We must begin with the development of trust-the inner knowing that no matter how many times one has faltered or disappointed, someone was there who helped one survive and carry on. We need to know there was a witness who cared. This development of trust leads to a sense of internal freedom-a freedom of both accessibility and expressiveness.” (Pg152-153)
I decided to begin my text reflection with a quote that talked about beginning with caretakers because of my desire to be a nurse. Also, it had to do with my service learning facility. I have discovered awe in helping others, and I feel this quote applies to me. By helping others I feel free from my faults, imperfections, and I feel like my life is meaningful. Nurses start their therapeutic relationship with trust and on an intrapersonal level people must start with trust to believe and act according to what they “know” is right. By working with the elderly, I feel a sense of awe in that 1 person’s actions can make so many people happy. It gives me clarity in an unclear world.
"We cannot have magnificence without uncertainty and we cannot have mystery without hope" (Pg 161). This is a wonderful way to express this point in one sentence. It is the uncertainty of things like God, aliens, and death that make these things so magnificent. It doesn’t take certainty to believe, but it takes certainty to trust. It is the uncertain things that we try to explain with the magnificent which in itself I think is an example of awe. The same goes with mystery and hope. When something is unexplained, people naturally try to explain it with something hopeful, thus heaven and religion are the hope in the mystery of life. Where mystery is explained science is usually the reason, thus the conflict between science and religion. Hope is an example of awe as well because it is that someone that was there who helped many survive and carry on, as stated in the quote above regarding trust, yet it is something that has no physical evidence of being fact.
“Magnificence and mystery are crucial mooring points, key touchstones in the encounter with life.”(Pg 173) This trust in magnificence and mystery are the way people live, love, and learn. It is awesome to believe and wonder, yet it is awful to think you have all of the answers. The real “rediscovery of awe” comes into play when people think about how much of their lives are affected by the unknown, and the act of thinking in general. Thinking is what makes us different from one another, and the uncertainty of life allows us to think and search. If people had all the answers, people would stop thinking and the reality of awe would become an unknown thing.