Daily Archives: January 28, 2009

Faith and Spirituality, Letters, Writing

A Bit More on the Humanities. OK, Maybe a Lot More

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 Winter    Waxing Wild Moon

I reproduce part of a David Brooks column here because it relates to the humanities thread I began a few posts ago.  He seems to counterpoise the liberal education as defined by Harvard against the institutional life devoted to what I would call a vocation.  This seems wrong-headed to me on a number of fronts, not least that the liberal arts education received its birth within the church and there is not much more institutional a creature than the church.

Vocation and its fit within an institution has been part of my life.  Ministry qualifies as one of the oldest professions, vocations, that exists.  Ordination confers upon you a responsibility to a particular institution, a responsibility defined by my Presbyterian vows to uphold the peace, unity and purity of the church.  The role of clergy specifically demands nurture of the institution and the tradition which it serves.  While in the Presbyterian church, I followed that vow with energy.

Brooks does not speak of the demand within any vocation and the institution they support:  law, medicine, education, even journalism for the prophetic voice.  This voice recognizes that traditions, in order to survive, must live and in living they must be constantly weighed in the crucible of every day practice.  Sometimes they fall short; the rote learning of the nineteenth century has given way to  learner centered education.  The church’s ministry, previously open only to men now has women in equal to greater numbers.  Continue reading A Bit More on the Humanities. OK, Maybe a Lot More →

Dreams, Weather +Climate

Up On the Twisted Side of the Bed

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Winter  Waxing Wolf Moon

“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” – Seneca

Seneca comes along just in time as I head out the door for an oil change for our truck.  Waiting for an oil change gives a well-ordered mind a chance to stop where it is and spend time in its own company. Not sure what I’ll do, but that’s a story…wait.  What was I on about?

When life gives you vehicles, make oil changes.  Sorry, I got up on the twisted side of the bed this morning.

Might have been that weird dream I had.  No, really.  I lived in China and had gone to work, in an offbeat way, for Jackie Chan, a wealthy man.  He rewarded me for doing things for him, at first straightforward, then not.  I can’t recall the first things I had to do, but the last is clear.  He wanted me to intervene in an election, but he didn’t want to win.  He wanted to lose the election.  Strange, I thought, but ok.

So, I did something and, sure enough, he lost.  He was happy.  So, what would Carl say about that?  Not sure.

A bright orange sun rose in the southeast at dawn, while stratus clouds took up part of the sky.   Now the stratus clouds define a narrow band from the horizon part way up the sky in the east with the rest clear.  The day has diffuse light rather than bright sun thanks to the band of stratus.