Awesome

I have the pleasure of meeting on a regular basis with a great, but small, group.  It is billed as a contemplative group, but that sounds rather sophisticated.  Essentially, what we are trying to do is figure out how to live our lives with as much meaning and pizzaz as we can.  It involves basic things like paying attention, adding a bit of discipline to our spiritual journeys and being grateful for both the big and little things that come our way.  We are all special people in God’s eyes, but we are not necessarily called to do spectacular things.  As Thomas Merton once said, we are supposed to become the people God wanted us to become.

Recently, we focused on a little article written by Dacher Keltner.  I don’t know Keltner, but I appreciated how he leads the reader into a consideration of the concept of awe.  His article talks about how to create an experience of awe by doing a walking meditation.  While I am interested in things like walking meditation, I was more intrigued to think about the idea of awe.  As I began to think about awe, I realized most of the time I hear the word, it is a variation of awe, namely, “awful.”  Sadly, it seems our society is more ready to judge someone awful, than we are to see the awe in and through people.  Today that meaning is usually negative.  Something or someone awful is bad, terrible, etc.

On the other hand, awe is typically a positive word.  Having said that, however, the word is linked to the idea of fear or trepidation.  It connects with fear in the sense that an experience of awe puts us in a place where we may be aware of special people (even “charged” people) or things.  There may be a sense of power and potency in the experience of awe.  A word I associate with awe is vulnerable.  Awe carries a feeling of being vulnerable.  

I like how Keltner opens his article.  He affirms that “We are all naturally endowed with a set of passions that enable us to find our purpose, increase our well-being, and navigate our place in the social world.”  He then names four passions: gratitude, compassion, mirth, and awe.  I am intrigued that Keltner sees awe as a passion.  As I think my way into this assertion, I can see where he is going.  To be in awe is a participatory experience.  It is a response to a feeling of being in a place that may leave us breathless and nearly overwhelmed.  Again, the idea of potency comes into play.  Hence, I like the idea of awe as passion.

And I appreciate that he links awe to purpose, well-being and a sense of our place in the social world.  These are good things; they offer a way of living that I find very attractive.  Who does not want to know they relate to purpose?  I want an abiding sense of well-being.  That is different from simply being happy---although I like being happy, too!  Finally, having a sense of being in place is so much better than feeling displaced---alienated and not belonging.  

I would like to share some thoughts that arose in the discussion of my little group.  I give them---individually and together---full credit for expanding my thinking.  One veteran of our group and of spiritual living shared that her experiences of awe come in two sizes: bigger and the little ones.  I suspect most of us have had at least one of the big ones.  Often it is associated with nature: a mountaintop experience or being on the shore of an ocean or even a smaller body of water.  The little ones tend to be more daily and hardly spectacular.  These are easy to miss if we are preoccupied or too busy. 

Another person linked awe to spiritual awakening.  I like this perspective.  I do think awe is a spiritual phenomenon, even if we don’t acknowledge the Spirit or understand ourselves to be spiritual.  As one member of the group opines, the Holy Spirit is not picky to whom it grants experiences of awe.  The Spirit also is not picky about the person it chooses to be an instrument of awe.  I find this delightfully humorous.  It is a help to all of us who are control freaks!

Easily, the group agreed that experiences of awe do feel like gifts.  Apparently, I cannot concoct an “awful” experience whenever I want one.  On the other hand, it does seem like we can be intentional about putting ourselves in places where an experience of awe is more likely to be given to us.  This experiential likelihood is enhanced if I pay attention.  I am cautioned by this, because too often I am too busy to pay attention to the approaching gift of awe.  

So much more can be said, but let me close with some reasons Keltner offers that encourage us to seek awe.  He says, “experiences of awe…lead people to be more altruistic, less entitled, more humble and aware of the strength of others, and less stressed by the challenges of daily living.”  All of this sounds very good.  It is difficult to imagine someone saying no to any of these results.

Experiencing awe in our lives helps us be less egotistical, be nicer and more helpful.  Awe makes us much better around people, which is going to enhance the likelihood they will like us more and this will make us feel better.  Another good thing about awe is it’s free.  Folks pay to go to amusement parks in order to be thrilled.  Maybe we can see our world as an “awe-filled park,” provided by God to thrill all humans with their prospect of living lives that are…well, awesome.