Daley-Harris is the author of “Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy” and the founder of RESULTS and Civic Courage. This is part of a series focused on better understanding transformational advocacy: citizens awakening to their power.

At religious services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, a writing by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel grabbed my attention:

“As civilization advances, the sense of wonder almost necessarily declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information, but only for a want of appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”

Of course, Heschel’s concept of wonder goes much deeper than “I wonder how anyone can still be undecided in the presidential election.”