"It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world."

In chapter two, Albert Knox states in a letter to Sophie that "It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world." To me, this is a very meaningful sentence. I believe that it means that during our lives we beging to take the world as it is as we are constantly bombarded with the ways we should think and act through literally thousands of sources such as the media, books, internet and the people we meet. Albert Knox was trying to say that through this process, our initiative to question everything around us and wonder about it STOPS.

This is what sets philosophers and normal people apart. Philosophers have kept the 'faculty of wonder' and as Albert put it perfectly, are trying to climb to the top of the rabbits fur in an attempt to "stare the magician in the eye" instead of those who have "become so comfortable they never risk crawling back up". However I do not completely agree with the statement as I do not believe that it is an ability to wonder but it is the initiative. I believe that people just don't bother to wonder and ask questions about the word anymore when they grow up and that it isnt that they lose the ability to do so.

Why this happens has been an intresting question to me, I spent quite some time trying to find a solution to this "disease" if you may. I believe that the reason people lose the 'faculty of wonder' is because we get preoccupied with the "unecessary things" of life as Albert would have put it. These things include money, our personal desires (such as IB results) and many other things too. True we must pursue some of these goals but the vast amount of them inhibits our initiative to wonder.

I have also thought of the philosophical questions brought up in the first two chapters of the book such as how the universe came to be and whether there is life after death. However, like Sophie, I was not able to grasp an answer and so I left them to be. Perhaps I too have become too used to the world and take it for granted. But how can I be if I am asking myself these questions and accusing myself? All these questions lead to more questions and more questions and I dont think that anyone would ever have a complete answer for a very long time.