" Hope is removing the rose colored glasses; reality."
"Revelation, Incarnation, Communion, Restoration."
"Love can't wait to give and lust can't wait to get."
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Learning from life
Tonight's posting suggestion: St. Augustine was greatly troubled by the death of his friend, which made him reconsider how he thought about life. Have you had an experience that caused you to change how you think about the world and/or your place in it? What was the experience, and how did it change how you think?
What I enjoyed about Augustine's Confessions was that they were relatable. The reading talked about what Augustine was thinking at times in his life, which are also things we'd think about in our society like making money and how someone might think at different periods in life, augustine at the beginning of his career thought about mythological fables and such, while later he abided with god and then looked into aristotle's readings as well. In the reading we are really able to understand the philosopher's way of thinking and how it's not completely misunderstandable but that he's an actual person who has to make a living and enjoys approaching new ways of thought.
3 Meditations
I love that Marcus Aurelius wrote these little bits of advice to himself and lived his life by them. I think we all can relate to that because we all hear things in songs and on TV that really stick with us and affect our lives. Last week you asked us to write three of our own meditations that we live by. Here are three pieces of advice from popular culture that have really affected the way I think and act.
1. "People are just people, they shouldn't make you nervous." -Regina Spektor
2. "If you want to be different, then be different." -The Janitor, "Scrubs"
3. "Hate is baggage." -"American History X"
1. "People are just people, they shouldn't make you nervous." -Regina Spektor
2. "If you want to be different, then be different." -The Janitor, "Scrubs"
3. "Hate is baggage." -"American History X"
No Such Thing as Justice
This doesn't really relate to any of the specific readings or topics we've been discussing, but I was thinking about it the other day, and it does have to do with ethics and the way we live our lives.
Justice, at least my own interpretation of it, is the idea that "good" people should be rewarded for their deeds, and "bad" people should be punished. I think most people see justice, and the judicial system as a way to carry out the latter. When people say "I want justice", mostly they mean, "I want revenge." I don't believe in revenge because revenge does not change the original bad deed committed, it does not encourage the person involved to do the right thing next time, and it causes people to enjoy the misfortunes of others, something I believe people should strive to avoid.
The justice system is vitally important to our government and legal system. We need it in order to keep order. Without it we would have no organized way to settle disputes or to determine the guilt and sentences of criminals. However, that does not make it an ethics system.
In order to get a mule to go forward, you dangle a carrot before it and hit it's rump with a stick. People are not mules. We should not see things so simply as to do good things just to be rewarded and avoid doing bad things because we will be punished. What is right and what is wrong, in my own opinion, is too murky a lens with which to classify people, and justice is really the aftermath of that division, not the cause.
Justice, at least my own interpretation of it, is the idea that "good" people should be rewarded for their deeds, and "bad" people should be punished. I think most people see justice, and the judicial system as a way to carry out the latter. When people say "I want justice", mostly they mean, "I want revenge." I don't believe in revenge because revenge does not change the original bad deed committed, it does not encourage the person involved to do the right thing next time, and it causes people to enjoy the misfortunes of others, something I believe people should strive to avoid.
The justice system is vitally important to our government and legal system. We need it in order to keep order. Without it we would have no organized way to settle disputes or to determine the guilt and sentences of criminals. However, that does not make it an ethics system.
In order to get a mule to go forward, you dangle a carrot before it and hit it's rump with a stick. People are not mules. We should not see things so simply as to do good things just to be rewarded and avoid doing bad things because we will be punished. What is right and what is wrong, in my own opinion, is too murky a lens with which to classify people, and justice is really the aftermath of that division, not the cause.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Straight, Not Straightened
The reason why I enjoyed reading Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” is because it handles many aspects of life in a simple, straightforward way unlike previous readings. Among his various meditations, my favorite one is this, “Straight, not straightened.”
Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist, once said, “Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am and what I need, these things I have to find out myself.” We constantly learn how to be righteous throughout our lives. However, we have to remember that even though we have learned various pieces of wisdom from others, it is useless if we do not apply them into our lives. In other words, others can teach us some morals but it does not mean they can make us righteous, too. We have to be virtuous on our own, not by others. “Straight, not straightened.”
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