Awe

worked as a midwife: To learn more about Nancy Bardacke’s work, see: https://www.mindfulbirthing.org/. She summarizes this work in a book, as well: Bardacke, Nancy. Mindful Birthing: Training the Mind, Body, and Heart for Childbirth and Beyond. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.

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In the right circumstances: The wonders of childhood and raising children are fueled by two vast forces of human development: intersubjectivity and play. For mothers, these forces are found often in soothing, touch, and “motherese”—that language of sounds and intonation oriented toward captivating an infant’s attention—and positive emotional displays like smiling. For fathers, they are found in wild forms of exploratory play, such as throwing the baby in the air or moving them around in space as if they had just jumped off Half Dome in Yosemite in one of those exhilarating flight suits.

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In one illustrative study: Colantino, Joseph A., and Elizabeth Bonawitz. “Awesome Play: Awe Increases Preschooler’s Exploration and Discovery.” In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 1536–41. Edited by Timothy M. Rogers, Marina Rau, Jerry Zhu, and Chuck Kalish. Madison, WI: Cognitive Science Society, 2018.

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as children develop: Anderson, Craig L., Dante D. Dixson, Maria Monroy, and Dacher Keltner. “Are Awe-Prone People More Curious? The Relationship between Dispositional Awe, Curiosity, and Academic Outcomes.” Journal of Personality 88, no. 4 (2020): 762–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12524.

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It’s no wonder: Twenge, Jean M. “Increases in Depression, Self-Harm, and Suicide among U.S. Adolescents after 2012 and Links to Technology Use: Possible Mechanisms.” Psychiatric Research & Clinical Practice. Published online March 27, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.prcp.20190015.

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Rachel Carson saw

: Popova, Maria. Figuring. New York: Pantheon Press, 2019.

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young people were being deprived: Carson, Rachel. “Help Your Child to Wonder.” Woman’s Home Companion, July 1956.

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“Help Your Child to Wonder”: Carson, Rachel. The Sense of Wonder: A Celebration of Nature for Parents and Children. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.

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Take in the ground: For a visual treatment of this science, see: Schwartzberg, Louie, dir. Fantastic Fungi. 2019. Los Gatos, CA: Netflix, 2019.

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young men dying of AIDS: Halifax, Joan. Being with Dying. Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death. Boulder, CO: Shambala Publications, 2008.

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Be open to suffering: Goetz, Jennifer, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, and Dacher Keltner. “Compassion: An Evolutionary Analysis and Empirical Review.” Psychological Bulletin 136, no. 3 (2010): 351–74.

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“flickerings of that innermost flame”: Woolf, Virginia. The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Edited by Andrew McNeillie. London: Hogarth Press, 2008, 161.

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Seeking to understand those “flickerings”: Norton, Loretta, Raechelle M. Gibson, Teneille Gofton, Carolyn Benson, Sonny Dhanani, Sam D. Shemie, Laura Hornby, Roxanne Ward, and G. B. Young. “Electroencephalographic Recordings during Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Therapy until 30 Minutes after Declaration of Death.” Canadian Journal of Neurological Science 44, no. 2 (2017): 139–45.

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beheaded at the guillotine: Taylor, Adam. “How Long Does the Brain Remain Conscious after Decapitation?” Independent, May 6, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decapitation-survive-speak-anne-boleyn-henry-viii-conscious-brain-a8886126.html.

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