Awe in a song
Driven by an unspeakable and unshakable certainty, the two characters find their separate paths to each other. And, to something both more terrifying and more wondrous than anything they could have imagined. What’s more is that they must make decisions about what they’ve witnessed.
Steven Spielberg has repeatedly tapped into the well of awe. For me, none of Spielberg’s encounters with awe stirs me more than his Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Jillian - in a frightful encounter where her son is abducted by aliens - doggedly searches for any lead to her son. Roy, the electrical lineman, has his own experience. Film history is marked with other mashed potato scenes, but none detail richly detail the effects of apparent psychosis as well as Roy’s obsession with the mountain he’s seen.
This morning, while thinking about a trip where we might pass through Wyoming, I thought I might have to visit Devil’s Tower National Monument. Close Encounters prominently features Devil’s Tower. This butte is the mythic structure Roy is modeling in his dreams, mashed potatoes, and all his waking life. Jillian, too,is driven by thoughts of the mountain. Both Jillian and Roy arrive there separately, each to find their answers.
I can’t hear (or watch) Close Encounters without crying. With other movies, I often have tears. But, crying for Close Encounters.
I recognize these people. All of them. Roy’s wife. Roy. Jillian. I deeply feel, hurt, and identify with each of them and with all The Jillians and Roys. What are Roy’s wife and kids supposed to do with his insanity? What is Roy supposed to do with his insanity? And, for so many people in our society, is it even possible to live and thrive with our particular insanities? After all, we are all on a spectrum of some insanity (this isn’t to minimize the distinct, quantifiable features of Autism Spectrum Disorder). If you, Dear Reader, imagine you haven’t had your own insanities, I suggest that this is a prime indicator of insanities. If you need further evidence, ask any Significant Others who’ve lived with you.
Certainly, I have my own insanities. I’ve had my depressions. I continue to deal with anxiety. I carry my own house of oddness and obsessions unpacking them wherever I go. Perhaps that’s why I find such wonder in the lives of complex people.
Recent research demonstrates (and ancient wisdom has told us for aeons), that awe is a sliding-scale combination of terror and wonder. In a recent paper Keltner and Haidt write the following,
We suggest that two appraisals are central and are present in all clear cases of awe: perceived vastness, and a need for accommodation, defined as an inability to assimilate an experience into current mental structures.
No better example of this are the experience of astronauts. Many astronauts have reported the Overview Effect wherein seeing the Earth from so far above caused a mental shift in them for the rest of their lives. This Overview Effect was even more pronounced for the Apollo astronauts seeing the Earth from the Moon.
I hope you’ve had such experiences. Experiences of awe can be cultivated, if you haven’t. Keltner recently published the book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. I worry about the elderly, those who live isolated lives, those who never go to parks, and those who dont experience contact with other people. These people need bolus doses of care, love, and awe.
While I was listening this morning to the soundtrack of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, if you had looked at me in my backyard, you would have seen me swinging the dog-pooh collector back and forth to the music.
For, if you we’re aware, the Close Encounters sountrack also features the lovely song, When you wish upon a stor.
I could say much more about awe. I’ve had many I don’t deserve. I keep looking for them. I hope you will, too.
