“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl
Some of us see the world in stories, others in colours and numbers. Yet others see it as a series of problems, solutions and anomalies.
I have a friend who sees the world in marvels.
He sees the world as a wondrous construct, something that shouldn’t have existed so magnificently but does all the same. He looks at buildings, shops and cars that whizz past and his eyes betray the sense of awe that holds him captive. He adores the complexities of systems and patterns. A feeling so overwhelmingly powerful he shares it with those of us around, hoping and praying we see what he sees the way he sees it because it’s simply so huge a truth to go unknown.
And on our best days, we see fleeting glimpses of the marvels the monotony of our lives veil. We look at the towering skyscrapers, the canals, the skies and the birds and for a brief moment where silence reigns, we see it and we feel it. The marvellous world. The world of wonders. We see the minuscule range of probability that permits existence where an artist would have seen beauty of the highest order. He points out the effort it must have taken some human in the past and we wonder how we missed it at all.
We spent days in school learning empirical methods to evaluate certain problems and it feels simplistic but elegant that it is ‘Trial and Error’ that we have grown to respect the most. In seeing the world in marvels, we also recognise the hours spent in sheer trying and our respect grows manifold, suddenly growing aware of all the ways the world could have erred but didn’t. We see the pain masked in silver and gold, the elegance of the science behind it and its inherent beauty. A world that consistently teeters on the edge of perfection and catastrophe.
My friend teaches us to look at the world in marvels, in turn – we show him how to find stories in every nook and cranny of the marvels he admires. And together, we create a lens so perfectly imperfect it doesn’t just help us see the marvels or stories but takes us into their very core, past all its layers that we’ve just begun to explore. And oh my – what a marvellous world it is indeed.
“At times I think of human relationships as something soft like sand or water, and by pouring them into particular vessels we give them shape.”
― Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You
Thoughtfully yours,
D
Happy new year friends! I hope your life unfolds in marvels! ❤️
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