Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello wonderseekers!
I’m writing this from the breakfast nook of my husband’s childhood home in the Midlands. We’re waiting for the estate agent photographer to take photos of the house so we can put it up for sale. My husband’s parents are both in a care home now, having gone from totally independent to quite the opposite in the course of only a year. Life changes so quickly sometimes. And sometimes it feels like it changes quickly all the time.
These are moments of what I call existential reframing. When the perception of where you sit in relation to time, relationships, geography, goals, meaning — Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I belong? — all shifts. There is a concept in science known as “ratcheted equilibrium,” where an entire set of beliefs changes, and from then on, that ratcheted level remains the new baseline or equilibrium. An example of this might be the discovery of cellular biology. Once we understood cells, our concept of how our body operates ratcheted to a new level, and that became the baseline. These ratchets happen to us in our personal life as well, and this is what I think of as an existential reframing.
These reframes or ratchets can be shocking or painful if we hold on too tightly to the present, but they also offer wonderfilled opportunities for reflection and perspective.
A quintessential perspective provider just passed away this week. William Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut photographer who took the iconic image “Earthrise,” died when a plane he was piloting crashed in Washington state. I can’t speak for Anders and his family, but to be 90 and die doing what you love seems like, in balance, a good death.
Anders’s image offered us our first glimpse of the Earth from space, and that sense of perspective was another great ratchet. That rachet birthed the modern sustainability movement and our planet was finally understood to be finite and delicate in a way never appreciated prior.
This week, in honor of Bill Anders, some thoughts on the benefits of perspective and how to find it.
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
Individual perspective: Our Personality Literally Changes How We See the World.
How the Webb and Gaia missions bring a new perspective on galaxy formation: How they unearthed the early building blocks of the Milky Way.
Improve your relationships with the science of perspective-taking: Revealing ways to help us get along better.
Next week, I’m headed back to Ireland! Really looking forward to visiting Belfast to meet with folks from Queens and then record a podcast hosted by Adoreboard that you can join live! Later in the week, I’ll be at the InvestHer Summit in Dublin. Tickets are still available. Hope to see you there!
With wonder,
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