The Wisdom of Wonder

We heard someone say a long time ago, “You become what you count.” The comment was made in the context of a business discussion. It was offered in response to an inquiry that went something like this: “You’re a very successful, highly profitable company. But I don’t see any of that on your website or in your external communications. All I see is stuff about your people. Why is that?” Now you understand the wisdom of the comment.

We were thinking about that comment in reflecting on the upcoming Holiday Season. We’re not ones to count our losses. But we couldn’t help wondering what might be the most significant loss of which we’re aware. In looking at the state of the world at the moment, we realized it has to be our sense of wonder. So few of us find wonder in the world anymore. We’ve lost the ability (or the determination?) to see the world as children do.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. (Albert Einstein)

Why is that? Can we get that ability (or that determination) back? We can’t think of a better time to try.

Perception is a Choice

Finding the negative in things is like counting our losses. It’s a refusal to see the positive, to recognize what we have and what we’ve gained. If we think about what we don’t have, we can have. We’re less likely to believe we’re able to get what we want, to follow our dreams, to make plans, to strive, and to prosper. Why do we do that? What’s the wisdom in it?

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

So, at this time of year, especially, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating what we have, in having the wisdom to wonder, in making a concerted effort to see the world the way we saw it as children, and to recognize the kinship with others we share and celebrate.

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round … as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. (Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol)

From all of us at Finys to all of you who read this post, please watch this brief video. And please accept our most sincere wishes for a joyous and peaceful Holiday Season.