Last night I had the good fortune to interview Peter Singer, who is considered one of the world’s most influential philosophers. I began the evening by asking him about a moment in his life that he describes in his wonderful book, Ethics in the Real World.
“At Byron Bay, Australia’s easternmost point,” writes Singer, “I was paddling out to where the waves were breaking. The sun was shining, the sea was blue, and I was aware of the Pacific Ocean stretching ahead thousands of miles, uninterrupted by land until it reached the coast of Chile.
A pulse of energy generated in that vast expanse of water neared a submerged line of rocks and reared up in front of me in a green wall. As the wave began to break, a dolphin leapt out ahead of the foam, its entire body clear of the water. It was a sublime moment.”
I looked up “sublime,” it means “of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.”
Have you ever experienced a sublime moment?
Peter’s experience reminded me of the time a hummingbird hovered just inches from my right cheek, and we effectively looked into each other’s eyes. Sublime.
Sublime moments reveal and connect us to that which is beyond ourselves. They remind us of the joy, wonder and blessing of being alive.
If someone were to ask what is a sublime moment in your life, how would you answer? What is your dolphin or hummingbird?
On Emotions 