NOTICE AND WONDER

THERE is so much emphasis placed on achievement in life!

We all know that achievements are important if we are to grow and develop, but they shouldn’t overshadow everything else. This is why I hope readers will like this idea from Kurt Vonnegut’s 1963 literary novel “Cat’s Cradle”.

“Life is a garden,” he wrote, “not a road. We enter and exit through the same gate. Wandering, where we go matters less than what we notice.”

Perhaps the real purpose of our achievements and our wanderings is simply to provide new things to notice … and wonder about.

Mr Vonnegut’s play on words reminds us that so much is missed, even when it stares right back at us. In psychology, this is referred to as “change blindness”, a phenomenon that has been intensely investigated by researchers since the 2000s.

. Science Book inaugurated 25 February, 2023