Awe-ful

If the keepers of the sacred corral discovered paternity in their stock breeding, then that knowledge would have been seen as numinous, awe-ful, and unconsciously unsettling.

The end of the twentieth century, and the end of the millennium, is an awful—and an awe-ful—time to live in.[…]I can’t help viewing the increasing chaos and tension of our millennial society with a sense of profound wonder. It almost seems like a natural force at work on us, or even a supernatural force. Who knows? I don’t try to understand it. But I do remember what it means to me, personally, living through an awe-ful time in an awe-ful society on an awe-ful planet. It means: everything is part of a pattern. Hale-Bopp, the incredible shrinking moon, the medieval kooks and the modern-day wackos—and me. Something big is always going on.

We might be able to watch how a thing works without separating it from the very mystery of creation of which it is an integral part. This is awe-ful science. My friend Jerry, an American living in Peru, is an awe-ful scientist.