# What Awes You?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 13, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601 "2011-08-13T19:46:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/1 "2011-08-13T19:46:38Z")
This place can tend to become all trees and no forest, if you catch my drift. So, Dopers… Go on… what that _thing,_ or even _things_ that has captured your imagination so profound, perhaps since you were so young, you couldn’t even understand it, but it took root in you and has and always will continue to be a source of awe, mystery, beauty, fascination, inspiration and perhaps even motivation.
What that _fundamental_ thing or idea that has you in its grips, and you wish you could indulge in it or share it with others far more often that you probably ever do.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/2 "2011-08-13T19:52:51Z")
karma.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/3 "2011-08-13T19:56:11Z")
The cosmos.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/4 "2011-08-13T20:34:35Z")
Consciousness.
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### Author:  [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/5 "2011-08-13T21:04:31Z")
Black metal music. Seriously. My sister had some records when I was a kid – I heard them, and that was it. Been a complete sucker for it ever since, gives me goosebumps every damn time – but the thing is, it goes _way_ beyond just “really digging the music.” I close my eyes and see it _all_ – the creation and destruction of the entire cosmos.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/6 "2011-08-13T21:32:36Z")
I try to avoid thinking about how big the universe is. Our largest city- hell, our entire planet- is less than a speck compared to even just our galaxy.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/7 "2011-08-13T21:38:10Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> Consciousness.
That’s a good one. Fascinates me as well.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/8 "2011-08-13T21:53:18Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> Consciousness.
More generally, the human brain. Emotion, reason, behavior, language, movement, imagination, personality, problem solving, survival… everything in our universe is contained within this relatively small, squishy structure inside our skulls. Everything from the most basic fight or flight instinct to the need to ponder questions like those given in the OP. And when things aren’t working properly… damn. [Colorless green ideas sure do sleep furiously](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptive_aphasia). Absolutely, endlessly, utterly fascinating.
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/9 "2011-08-13T21:57:33Z")
A normal healthy baby.
Engaged, fascinated, and learning at a rate that entirely blows my mind. Watch any child under six months for five minutes, and you will see discovery happen. You will watch learning. And when they get tired, they go to sleep. And wake up and start again.
Tris
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### Author:  [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/10 "2011-08-13T21:57:43Z")
The universe and what is out there.
I just came back from a 1 week canoe trip out in Algonquin park. One thing I always looking forward to stargazing at night on these trips. This past trip I could see the milkway and was witness to something I’ve never seen before. As I watch the horizon and the stars overhead we were witness to a slow rolling skyscape of constellations moving over us. Then we realized what we were experiencing was the earth turning on it’s axis. We also saw tons of satellites and shooting stars.
Blew our minds.
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### Author:  [@JoThrive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoThrive)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/11 "2011-08-13T22:15:06Z")
> [@Ibanez](#):
>
> The universe and what is out there.
>
> I just came back from a 1 week canoe trip out in Algonquin park. One thing I always looking forward to stargazing at night on these trips. This past trip I could see the milkway and was witness to something I’ve never seen before. As I watch the horizon and the stars overhead we were witness to a slow rolling skyscape of constellations moving over us. Then we realized what we were experiencing was the earth turning on it’s axis. We also saw tons of satellites and shooting stars.
>
> Blew our minds.
What he said. I can sit on my front deck and see the Milky Way and feel the immensity of the Universe. What all is out there I wonder. What wonderful things are out there. . . . . .
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/12 "2011-08-13T22:27:07Z")
Watching a B52 take-off, flight and landing. God, I love that bomber!
Quasi
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### Author:  [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/13 "2011-08-14T00:29:10Z")
Horses. I think they are the most perfectly beautiful creatures ever. Powerful graceful, they are living works of art. I can be literally moved to tears watching them.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/14 "2011-08-14T01:17:32Z")
Earth and all of the really cool Earth stuff I haven’t seen yet.
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### Author:  [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/15 "2011-08-14T01:19:14Z")
Meteor showers. Every time I see a shooting star I go all gapey.
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### Author:  [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/16 "2011-08-14T01:58:22Z")
Just the _immensity_ of it all. I am a librarian in a middle school. Early in my career, I decided I wanted to put a scale model of our solar system up. HA!! No freaking way. Even to just make it fit into the (good sized) library, the sun is like the size of this smilie: 🙂 and the planets would be microscopic. It would be a really underwhelming model.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/17 "2011-08-14T02:01:01Z")
> [@cmyk](#):
>
> What that fundamental thing or idea that has you in its grips, and you wish you could indulge in it or share it with others far more often that you probably ever do.
Really great sex.
But I do share it with others in just about the right amount.
😉
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/18 "2011-08-14T02:23:51Z")
Good stuff: A baby. All babies are beautiful, and heart-stoppingly awesome.
Bad stuff: The stupidity of war.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/19 "2011-08-14T02:46:17Z")
The sky.
Not stars and satellites and meteors (pretty cool, though), but just weather.
Clouds. Sunsets. Rainbows. It sounds mushy and sentimental, but toss in a Nor’easter or a tornado - or even that astonishing effect when the setting sun shines under the cloud cover -
Weather just awes me.
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### Author:  [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awes-you/592601/20 "2011-08-14T03:31:15Z")
Ocean waves.
I surf so I can see them up close. They seem to pop up from nowhere and when they get close to shore, they break sometimes forming “liquid barrels”.
And I get to ride those wonderful, powerful forms of energy. Being inside a tunnel of moving water… doesn’t get any better.
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