In this week’s podcast, Love is as Real as a Rock (above), I talk about the developmental dilemma of growing up and losing the magic of childhood. It not only happens to us as individuals, but as cultures. The good news is that with further development into integral and post-integral altitudes we get to bring magic back, this time integrated with rationality and world-centrism.

Nevertheless the disenchantment of modern adulthood is a painful passage, which brings me to one of my latest obsessions: a YouTube video (scroll down to watch it) of one of my favorite performances of all time: a 22-year-old Barbra Streisand singing Where is the Wonder from her first major television network special, My Name is Barbra. Already a sensation on Broadway for her performance in the musical Funny Girl, this was her introduction to mainstream America. Brilliant and quirky, with a stunning Stradivarius voice, her live singing at the end of the show is one of the moments that made her a superstar — especially for one eleven year-old gay boy…

Where is the Wonder?
Where is the wonder that I once felt?
Watching snowflakes melt as a child
Where is the wonder that I once knew?
When the sky of blue turned wild?
Where is the magic that thrilled me so,
Watching flowers grow in the spring?
Where is the magic that filled the sky?
How did robins fly and sing?
Where are the marvels that I marveled at?
What changed the kitten into a cat?
Where are the mysteries that I couldn’t solve?
What made the world revolve?
Where is the wonder that years conceal,
That a child can feel now and then?
Oh, where is the wonder of long ago
That I’ll never know again…