Wonder is a distinct experience that prompts questioning and self-reflection, described by Coleridge as being 'big with wonder'. This experience connects to an odd paradox of happiness, where individuals may feel happy in hindsight rather than in the moment, suggesting that true happiness requires a loss of the self. The term 'wonder' is associated with the German word 'Wunder', meaning 'wound', indicating that wonder involves a breaching of deeper layers of identity, beyond the physical, revealing vulnerabilities and a transformative understanding of the self.
"The word wonder comes from the cognate 'Wunder,' or wound from the old German. Wonder is what wounds us, enters us."
"Happiness often involves a kind of egolessness. It's when you forget who you are. If I am to be happy, I have to lose any sense of the 'I.'"
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