Enthusiasm

Albert Einstein definitely would have approved of my youngest grandson. No, I’m not claiming he is as smart as Einstein but he does have a particular quality that Einstein admired.

Christmas morning, my six year old grandson eagerly tore the wrapping from one of his presents. As the gift emerged he proclaimed, “Oh wow! I’ve wanted one of these my whole life.” Then he looked at mom and dad and said, “What is it?”

He’s only six so life hasn’t yet taken his enthusiasm. He hasn’t become cynical. He’s still sure there’s something wonderful about the present even if he doesn’t know what it is. It’s like the old joke, “There must be a pony in there somewhere!”

Enthusiasm comes from Greek words meaning, “in god”, implying the enthusiastic one is possessed by a god somehow. Enthusiastic people generally have very attractive personalities. Whether someone is six or sixty if they have enthusiasm for life other folks tend to gravitate toward them.

Unfortunately, our natural enthusiasm tends to be driven out of us by the time we’re in our teens. By then, adults have quashed, ridiculed, or ignored the enthusiasm of childhood to the point that a “whatever” or outright sullen attitude has taken its place. It’s no wonder so many teens adopt a “who cares” attitude rather than be corrected, once again, by an adult eager to assert superior knowledge.

Albert Einstein was an enthusiastic man. He said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” Passionately curious is another way of saying enthusiastic.

Einstein was only thirteen years old when he read Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason which influenced his thinking greatly. Personally, I’ve tried to read Critique several times and only got hopelessly confused every time. But, Kant’s thinking began to develop in Einstein a belief that God could best be perceived in the laws of nature, in the order and harmony of the universe. His insatiable curiosity then inspired him to enthusiastic inquiry about all things. He would have appreciated my young grandson. He said, “Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.”

Seems to me, as we embark on a new year, each of us has the innate capacity to once again see the world with childlike eyes, to, once again, say “Wow”. There will, of course, be an infinity of folks who, given the chance, will tell us we’re being ignorant or silly to admire the ordinary, to find the hand of God in the mundane all around us but pay them no mind.

If Einstein, who grasped many of the secrets of the universe, had such awe and enthusiasm then who are we to burrow down in our certainties and self-righteousness, sure that we understand all that is?

In this new year may all that doesn’t nourish us fade away and all that brings awe and joy awaken in our hearts and souls.