Palmtree Contemplations

The past semester has been a journey of discovering more about me and what God desires me to do. Coming here to John Brown University has forced me to ask myself important questions. Who am I? Who does God want me to be? How can I use what I am passionate about to change the world? Who am I? I was born on November 24 th , 1991, in the beautiful, old, grimy, modern city of Manaus, Brasil. I grew up at an American boarding school twenty miles outside of the city where my parents work. My early childhood was filled with swimming in the Amazon, building forts in the jungle, and reading any books I could find. My father has been collecting books for years, something he passed onto me. He taught me everything I know about good literature by giving me good books from the time I could read. When I think of home, I see myself sitting at the table with him, both of us reading.   My mother passed on a lot of things to me, among them her love and gift for music. Even when I was littl...

       Our lives are incredibly fast-paced these days. We have so many things that we tell ourselves we must do everyday.  The Narrator in Zen understands this and he believes many people go through life like ego-filled mountain climbers. This kind of person will miss the little things in life like "a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees," and "rejects the here, is unhappy with it." An ego-climber is always looking ahead instead of experiencing and taking joy in his surroundings.  (p. 267)         In contrast, the Narrator believes that, "Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire...You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion...To live only for some future goal is shallow." (p. 258) Instead of being ego-filled mountain climbers, we should be self-less climbers, aware of what is happening around us and enjoying the moment.     ...

       In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance , Phaedrus is plagued with doubts about his ability to teach. He works at a college in Montana and, one day at the office, is asked by one of his colleagues about his teaching the right way. That is to say, he is teaching the way the book teaches. As he puts it, he is teaching "rationally." "He felt there was something wrong with it...The wrongness was in the old ghost of his dreams-rationality itself. (p. 228)"       It becomes clear that Phaedrus does not believe in what he is teaching. This brings up an interesting question: should teachers believe in what they teach? Even more importantly, should this be the goal of education?      I think that teachers should teach what they believe. It's obvious that Phaedrus suffers because he cannot teach what he believes is important. He is trying to combine his beliefs with his profession. He wants to fulfill his calling. We are all loo...

The real University, he said, has no specific location. It owns no property, pays no salaries, and receives no material dues. The real University is a state of mind.         This is a quote from Robert   M. Persig's book, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." The Narrator reveals to the reader how Phaedrus, a former teacher, feels about education. Throughout the book, the Narrator presents gives his and Phaedrus's thoughts on education, motorcycle maintenance, and zen. It's an intriguing book. Even more intriguing is how Phaedrus embodies the discerning aspect of wisdom.       In my previous blog, I discussed Caroline Basset's article on wisdom. She puts forth the idea that wisdom can be divided into different dimensions. Discerning is one of them. The chief characteristic of discerning is objectivity, meaning the ability to look at a situation from the outside. Someone who has this ability will ask questions like "What's really...

          When I think of wisdom personified I usually imagine an older person sitting in a rocking chair dispensing advice and nuggets of truth. I don't think I have ever heard someone in my generation being called wise. The term isn't used to described very many college experiences, either. I can't think of a single college that listed "gaining wisdom" as one of the benefits of their program. It was always, "Come here and you will learn how to be a good scholar," or something like that.          And yet, wisdom is incredibly valuable. When he was given the choice of anything in the world, King Solomon asked for wisdom. According to Provers, wisdom is of the same value as silver, will keep us living in safety, and enable us to preserve knowledge. Wisdom is so valuable because it cannot be created by man. Rather, it is God who gives it to us.         Wisdom has many different aspects. In her article, ...

       In the Honors Program, knowledge is encouraged and cultivated the way a tree is cultivated by a gardener.I'm not talking about just any kind of knowledge, though. There are three types: foundational, disciplinary, and interdiscplinary.          Foundational knowledge involves basic facts and concepts. Knowing how to add and subtract is foundational knowledge.         Disciplinary deals with in-depth facts, concepts, and methodologies of at least one subject or discipline. My class in musical theory is teaching me the specifics of my major, music, so I am gaining discplinary knowledge from it.         Interdisciplinary knowledge connects different academic disciplines in different settings. If I take what I am learning in my musical theory, Celtic Christianity, and voice classes and then apply it in a chapel setting I am...

                                Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque. "I make free adults out of children by means of books and a balance."                 This is the motto for St. John's College, a liberal arts school that is dedicated to teaching students habits of thinking that will last a lifetime. They do this by requiring students to study the works of some of the greatest minds in history, including Homer, Galileo, Austen, Freud, Tolstoy, Mozart, and Augustine, to name a few. Basically, it's a college known for reading good books.        The program differs from John Brown in the fact that it is not a Christian university. It's focus is on providing a good liberal arts education, whereas Jo...