Bridge between Pragmatism and Awe

Towards the beginning of our Literature of Awe course, I was pretty focused on the disconnect between a semester spent in pursuit of abstract awe and the practicality/pragmatics of daily life. I grappled with that disconnect in a few posts, like the one where I listed some of my top awe-inspiring works, and the one where I tried to capture the awe I feel when I'm playing outside. I also focused on the disconnect as I revised a paper for one of my editing classes, trying to reconcile my service as a missionary in the Philippines with the comparative superficiality of a potential editing career. In any case, the disconnect (whatever it was) was on my mind a lot during the first several weeks of the semester.

But more that just theorize abstractly about awe and feel frustrated by the supposed absence of practicality in my senior course, I also wanted to round out my English major by studying an author I'd always wanted to know better--William Wordsworth. He seemed to fit with awe. And it seemed like his work could serve as a lens to understand some awe and maybe make sense of some disconnect.



While browsing the Wordsworth call numbers in the good old HBLL early in the semester, I flipped through the intro of Batho's biography called The Later Wordsworth. She pointed out a shift between Wordsworth's early and late writings, and I instantly saw the potential parallel between my awe/pragmatism divide and Wordsworth's early poetry/late poetry divide. Plus I was feeling sick of the division and wanted some way to connect the two sides. The bridge pose I practiced in my early morning yoga classes, which fell on the same days as Literature of Awe, was also on my mind.

Meanwhile, I was discovering the world of blogging to complete my class assignments, and learning how simple it is to accomplish technological feats thanks to Blogger and a Mac. I proudly screenshot my Pecha Kucha, which further detailed my disconnect. Turns out I was creating a false binary, in answer to my own question at the bottom of that post. I just needed to take out the "vs." My paper idea further developed as I delved into some helpful literary theory that allowed me think abstractly about pragmatism.

Soon, helped along by some deadlines, I produced a working thesis, still planning to focus on the disconnect between pragmatism and awe, between Wordsworth's later and early works. I waffled between pragmatism venues and Romantic venues for my project, and generally felt torn. I also produced an annotated bibliography and an early draft focused on the divide.

Cue creative project. Yes, an interpretive dance. This is where I really started to see connections between awe and pragmatism, and realized that I didn't have to solve my imagined divides all in one paper. Around this time I received my professor's comments on the editing paper I linked to above, and felt the disconnect start to dissipate. Of course there can be awe in practical situations, just like there's awe in Wordsworth's early AND later works.

Then my ideas were off and running. I had a cool social-proof conversation with a pragmatism scholar, and further developed the dance concept.

Once I sat down and got writing, and stood up and got to a dance studio, I had the milestone moment where I posted full versions of the paper and the dance last week. Last night, after my final BYU Writing Center tutorial and a lot of revision, I posted the final paper. Disconnect dissipated, peace and awe in practicality embraced. Ahhh. (see aw, ahh, aah, awe disambiguation)