There’s a type of awe that surrounds the Jewish High Holy Days that is solemn, fearsome. People beating their chests, dressed in all white, lying on the ground.
During these 10 Days of Awe, God is said to be deciding who will and will not be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year. Even the word itself is tinged with dread: Etymologists traced “awe” back to the Middle English “ege,” which meant fear.
I grew up more religiously observant than I am now, so that awe used to feel easier to come by. At synagogue, reciting prayers, I was tuned into the divine, the otherworldly. More recently, I have spent these holidays curious about a different kind of awe, one that is more based in wonder than in fear.
In his book on the topic, aptly titled “Awe,” Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that the sensation is not mysterious or unknowable. Instead, he writes, it is an emotion that scientists can detect. Keltner and his team collected 2,600 accounts of awe from people around the world and created a taxonomy of activities that spark it.
After reading Keltner’s book, I sought out rabbis, priests, poets and artists and asked them how awe functions in their lives. Out of a dozen conversations, three themes emerged.
1. Experiencing awe, counter to what one might think, is about quantity and not only quality.
I had always associated awe with singular, standout experiences, like traveling out west and taking in the otherworldly colors of desert wildflowers. But my panel of awe experts focus on finding little nuggets of awe in their everyday routines.
Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, told me that awe is reinforcing: The more often she seeks it out, the more easily she finds it. Taylor lives in a farmhouse in Appalachia, and each morning on her walk to the mailbox, she finds what she calls “at least three miracles.” The roaring orange of the azaleas in her yard, the insistent song of a whippoorwill, the galloping of horses at feeding time. At this point, she said, “even a spider can knock me out.”
Indeed, Keltner’s research found that awe, unlike pleasure, isn’t subject to a hedonic treadmill. An activity that brings pleasure, like eating chocolate, may yield diminishing returns with every bite — but awe-inducing experiences stay just as powerful every time.
2. You can create tools to proactively find awe.
These folks treat awe as if it’s a muscle to develop, not an experience that washes over them.
A.J. Jacobs, author of “The Year of Living Biblically,” has a roster of awe-inducing habits. On the subway, he pretends the view in front of him is a “Where’s Waldo?” scene and zeros in on tiny and delightful details, like a toddler cupping her hand around a friend’s ear to share a secret. Jacobs wrote another book chronicling his quest to personally thank everyone responsible for his daily cup of coffee. Not just the barista, but also the truck driver who transported the beans and the woman who did pest control at the warehouse — 1,000 people in all, which made the coffee awe-inspiring.
Keltner’s book traces all kinds of activities that spark awe. Some were expected, like listening to music. But he also highlighted less obvious ones, including what he calls “collective effervescence,” the joy of doing something in a crowd, like marching or moshing.
3. Looking around for awe can change the way you interact with other people.
“I try to remember that wondering about another person is a path toward wonder,” Rabbi Sharon Brous told me. “I want to be carried away by the human experience, by grief and by love.”
She told me about a day when she helped a congregant with the devastating burial of a child, then rushed to a hospital where her sister-in-law was giving birth. As she cradled the newborn, Brous realized she had dirt under her fingernails from the cemetery. She was awed by the way life and death bump up against each other — and by the fact that people invited her into these intimate moments.
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THE LATEST NEWS
Politics
Trump’s campaign of retribution began long before James Comey’s indictment. It started to intensify in mid-July and recently hit a fever pitch.
President Trump said he had ordered troops to Portland, Ore., to quell protests that he said were directed at ICE facilities.
The F.B.I. fired more agents, including those who knelt during racial justice protests in 2020.
Charlie Kirk became famous for his campus debate sessions. An analysis of videos shows how he used the format to deliver a hard-line message while orchestrating shareable moments.
The University of California is in an uproar over how to respond to the Trump administration’s attacks. So is the rest of higher education.
In an unexpected move, oil and gas executives are expressing concern about the Trump administration’s attacks on offshore wind.
Tariffs
Trump’s proposed tariffs on pharmaceuticals may end up sparing many rich drugmakers, while punishing some smaller ones.
The president’s plan for import taxes on foreign-made cabinets, vanities and furniture could increase the costs for homebuilders in the midst of a national housing shortage.
International
Russian provocations in Europe have prompted alarm in capitals there, with officials worried that Moscow is stepping up its antagonism of Europe as U.S. support recedes.
Russia attacked Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and other cities with nearly 600 drones and dozens of missiles, killing at least four people.
Moldova faces a high-stakes parliamentary election today that could either further its push to join the European Union or pull the nation closer to Russia.
Iran’s economic situation, already dire with water and power shortages, is expected to deteriorate more after the U.N. Security Council reimposed harsh sanctions on the country over its nuclear program.
Other Big Stories
A gunman opened fire on a riverside bar in North Carolina last night, killing three people before speeding away in a boat, city officials said.
Lorenz Kraus’s parents disappeared years ago. In a TV studio last week in Albany, N.Y., he confessed to killing them.
THE SUNDAY DEBATE
Last week, Trump stood before the U.N. General Assembly and asked, “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Has the U.N. lost relevance?
Yes. For decades, the United States and other great powers have ignored the U.N. in favor of militarization and fossil fuels. “The dark reality is that the U.N. is heading for the same fate as the League of Nations,” Michael Roberts writes for Counterfire.
No. The U.N. was never designed to bring the world to eternal peace, but to prevent great powers from going to war with one another. “It suits the mighty to use the U.N. as their scapegoat,” Bloomberg’s Andreas Kluth writes.
FROM OPINION
Trump is using Tylenol to blame mothers for their children’s autism because it’s easier than building a society that can support people with special needs, Jessica Grose writes.
Here are columns by Ross Douthat on drones over Denmark and Maureen Dowd on the perils of artificial intelligence.
MORNING READS
Chappell Roan: Onstage, she’s a powerhouse, our critic writes. Her tour also highlights how she continues to deviate from the rising pop star’s expected playbook.
Midlife makeup guru: Erica Taylor wants you to forget everything you learned about makeup in high school.
Vows: Breaking news interrupted their date, but not their connection.
Lives Lived: Aron Bell, part of a daring brigade of Jewish partisans who attacked German troops during World War II, died at 98.
SPORTS
M.L.B.: There’s plenty on the line in today’s regular-season finale. The Yankees and Blue Jays are tied atop the American League East, while the Mets and Reds are vying for the National League’s third wild-card spot.
Golf: The Ryder Cup heads into its final stretch today. Here’s what to know as Team USA tries to stave off a historic defeat.
College football: The No. 17 Alabama upset the No. 5 Georgia yesterday, thanks to a gritty quarterback and a defense that made just enough plays when it mattered. It was Georgia’s first night home loss since 2009.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
“Awake” by Jen Hatmaker: In 2020, Jen Hatmaker was in bed next to her husband of 26 years when she heard him voice texting his girlfriend, “I just can’t quit you.” And that, as she puts it in her brave and irreverent memoir, was “the end of life as I know it.” Hatmaker, a Christian women’s influencer and best-selling author, had built a brand around her enviable domestic sphere. Here, she dismantles the facade while reinforcing the parts that sustain her, and also looks back on the strict evangelical upbringing that shaped her. “The book is a full-throated praise song to the body,” our reviewer wrote, “its wisdom, its patience, its trustworthiness, even when society and religion say the opposite.”
More on books
Ian McEwan imagines the 22nd century in his new book, “What We Can Know.” For a look inside his world, go here.
In “We Love You, Bunny,” Mona Awad revisits the gleefully vicious satire of her 2019 hit. For our review, go here.
THE INTERVIEW
This week’s subject for The Interview is the actor Sean Penn, who stars in Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged thriller “One Battle After Another.” Like the movie, Penn is good at stirring up strong feelings — in his acting, his humanitarian work and his occasional forays into gonzo journalism. Where does that impulse come from? We talked about it when we met at his home in Malibu earlier this month.
There’s a quote I saw that your mom, the actress Eileen Ryan, gave to Woody Allen. You were working with Woody on “Sweet and Lowdown,” and he said something to the effect of, He didn’t quite get you. And your mom said to Woody, “The thing you need to understand about Sean is that he’s just embarrassed at having had a happy childhood.”
[Laughs.] It’s true, I had a very happy childhood. Psychiatrists have been pushing, pushing, trying to find that capital-T trauma in my childhood. It’s not there. I made every demon door in my life as a young adult and forward. I did it myself. My parents were great — loving family, great brothers, and it was surfing and the ocean every day. I’ve never been embarrassed about that. I feel lucky as hell about that. I was confused for a long time. Why did I want to walk through all the fires I built, and maybe I still sometimes do? But it had nothing to do with my childhood.
In the book “Sean Penn: His Life and Times,” by Richard T. Kelly, which was published about 20 years ago, people close to you refer to you as having real anger inside. Where does that anger come from?
Look around. I love humanity. My problem is humans. You go to the market, and this person who’s at the register was not really listening when they were taught how to use it, and they’re struggling with that while they’re extending a personal conversation with the customer in front of you. You know that’s not how life’s supposed to be. There’s supposed to be an experience of professionalism. You get on an airplane and a steward —
What are you talking about?
Incompetence drives me out of my [expletive] mind! It triggers me on a level you can’t imagine. I start to equate my soul with a volcano.
Read more of the interview here.
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MEAL PLAN
When people find out that Mia Leimkuhler works at NYT Cooking, she writes in this week’s Five Weeknight Dishes, they tend to tell her about their favorite recipes. So she put together a newsletter of the dishes others have recently recommended. They include pierogies with brussels sprouts and kimchi and kale sauce pasta.
NOW TIME TO PLAY
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was inclemency.
Can you put eight historical events — including the Suez Crisis, NASA’s Gemini missions and Monet’s “Haystacks” — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.
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Jonathan Wolfe contributed to this newsletter.
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