The power of wonder | Brittany Hölljes | TEDxOldHickory

Quick Overview

Brittany Hölljes recounts how experiencing wonder, even in moments of fear or ordinary life, profoundly impacted her and her family, leading to a conscious choice to seek out and embrace the magical over the mundane, exemplified by her niece's reaction to snow and the success of her band's simple music video.

Key Points: Hölljes started working at a summer camp caring for 50 kids, which led to an encounter where a child experiencing a migraine was given preserved snow from winter, causing the child to exclaim, "Wow! Amazing!" The speaker argues that humans are often programmed to think things like clouds are just clouds and that we must strive to transcend this rigid belief system to find wonder. Hölljes's band, formed with her brother and three best friends in the woods of North Carolina, created a low-budget music video for a song that gave them "goosebumps" and was played repeatedly on late-night TV shows. The experience of seeing wonder in the snow, the beauty of a sunset, and the simple, powerful music they created demonstrated that wonder is accessible and essential, even if society tries to minimize it. She urges the audience to choose wonder over fear, noting that fear can make beliefs rigid, whereas wonder allows for mystery and growth. Her aunt, an elementary school librarian who deliberately traffics in wonder, showed Hölljes how to actively seek out the magical in everyday life.

Context: Brittany Hölljes delivers a TEDx talk focusing on the importance of cultivating and embracing wonder in daily life, contrasting it with the tendency to become rigid and fearful. She shares personal anecdotes from her time working with children and her experiences with her band to illustrate how moments of unexpected magic, like preserved snow or evocative music, provide essential perspective and connection, especially in a rapidly changing world.

Detailed Analysis

Brittany Hölljes shares her realization about the power of wonder, sparked by an incident at a summer camp where she cared for 50 kids. During a hot day, a camper suffering from a migraine was given preserved white snow from winter, prompting the child to react with genuine awe, saying, "Wow! Amazing!" This event served as a powerful counterpoint to the tendency to dismiss the magical, a programming she observed in her niece, who didn't initially see the beauty in snow and sunset. Hölljes contrasts this with her aunt, an elementary school librarian who deliberately traffics in wonder, showing her how to look beyond the obvious (like the "rigid oak cracks in a storm") to find magic. She also discusses her band, which created music that gave them goosebumps and achieved viral success with a low-budget video before the age of widespread social media, proving that profound experiences can emerge from simple, authentic efforts. The core message is that humans must trade fear, which leads to rigid beliefs, for wonder, which allows for mystery and growth, concluding that we should choose to let life have mystery and miracle, rather than settling for the practical or mundane.