I just discovered a gem (well, actually my wife did).
My family and I have an Audible account that we all use extensively. One of the fun things that Audible does is to offer a rotating spattering of books for free to account holders. The books offered this way are always a bit of a random assortment, and since they change frequently checking that list is always a bit of a gamble. My wife checked that list about a month ago and spotted a book she thought I would be interested in. The book was called “The Sense of Wonder” by Rachel Carson, and wow was my wife right about it!
Rachel Carson, in case you have somehow never heard of her, was a marine biologist, conservation ecologist, science communicator, and author (to name just a few). She is most famous for her book “Silent Spring” in which she discusses the negative impacts that insecticides have on the natural world and on human health. This book is widely viewed as having a dramatic impact on the efforts to ban many harmful pesticides and launching the environmental movement in the USA.
In “The Sense of Wonder” Carson talks about sharing a love of nature and the world with kids. How magnificent it can be to spend time with a child asking questions regardless of if you or anyone else knows the answers. How wonderous it can be to stand together on the edge of the ocean and have the waves “through great handfuls of froth” at you. How awe inspiring it can be to walk in the company of child through a deep forest after a storm and see every pine needle and ever spray of lichen trimmed with water droplets.
Carson also discusses how important it is to share these experiences and emotional responses to nature with children, and not teach them about nature. It is the sharing that is important. It is the sharing of one’s own passion that will spread that passion to others. The knowledge will come, almost on its own, if the love and passion are there, but the reverse is so common.
I am so delighted that this book exists. I want to share it with my daughter. I want to take it out into the woods and read it so that I can share Carson’s words and thoughts, myself. This book exemplifies the value of the written word in that the ideas that someone has can be shared with others long after that person is gone (Carson died in 1964 at the age of 57).
This is certainly a book that I heartily recommend and that I will be re-reading often. I will probably even go out and find a hardcopy version that I can physically carry with me to the seashore or forest or riverbank or desert.
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Disclaimer: I have no sponsorship type relation to Audible, Rachel Carson, or the publishing company that produces this book.
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