Things that make me Awe-ful
Here's a list of some of the things that make me aweful!
Computers I remember Mr. Sullivan, my eighth grade teacher, saying
that we would all have computers more powerful than Univac in every home.
We laughed!
The internet The library in Alexandria was reputed to be the biggest
library ever! When I was in high school, I was amazed at the amount
of information in the Boston Public Library, much of it on microfiche!
The internet puts it all at your fingertips in your PC! And you can
find out what those plastic things at the end of your shoelaces are called
or find a history of the oldest American settlement!
A plant Gets almost all its ingredients out of black earth, and becomes
anything, of any size, from moss to a flower to a tree!
A seed Has the blueprint of the plant it is to become, and the size
has nothing to do with the size of the plant. A pea is much bigger
than an apple seed! But both generate more of itself!
dirt Both ends of the food chain! And home to thousands of visible
an microscopic creatures!
Stars The sizes, numbers and distances involved when people start talking
about stars are phenomenal!
A finger So simple, so useful!
A hand a collection of fingers that adds to the utility of the collection!
Legs The oldest, cheapest, most reliable form of transportation!
Sex How can something so simple, so innocuous, so brief, have such life
changing qualities.
People who don't share my "awe"! How can people so glibly search the
internet, send an e-mail, eat a nut, or look at the sky without some of
these thoughts? But I know I'm not alone, I'm not the first, and
I, hopefully, won't be the last!
I got to thinking about my aweful frequency when I was "watching" a room
being built at work. By "watching", I mean that every time I went
by, some more progress had been made. The studs they used were flimsy
steel studs, but, obviously, once the braces were installed and the sheetrock
was put on, it was probly more sturdy than the old two by four! What
amazed me was that I had, pretty much, watched Dad build the house we grew
up in. I must have missed something, because I spent most of my childhood
awed that the dining room wall was so smooth! Not a swirl in the plaster
anywhere! I decided it had to be a skill you acquired when you grew
up!
I mentioned "hand" and "finger". I think the
hand and fingers are the simplest form of "synergy". "Synergy" is
a word you learn in business and economics classes, that means that the
whole is more than the some of it's parts. A classic example
is a football team. Eleven men can get together and call themselves
a football team but this team can't hold a candle to a professional team.
And can you imagine 5 people, each equipped with a stick, trying to skip
a rock across a lake?
This is just a few of the things that make me "awed"! I'm sure
I can come up with more, like the internal combustion engine and the design
of a fish, but you get the idea!