Torrey Academy

Last week I went to the Torrey academy summer camp. It was probably the most amazing summer camp I have ever been too!! The Torrey Honors program at Biola University is a program that gets its students to read the classic books and then discuss them. It is a way of getting people to think for themselves, and to always question everything. As I learned while I was up there, when engaged in dialogue, its not about the answers its about the questions. The process of how one comes to a conclusion is more important than the conclusion its-self.

We had many lecturers (some lasting over 3 hours) about many different yet similar subjects. One of the lecturers that stuck out to me the most was one (of the many he gave) given by Dr. Reynolds, regarding how society is so caught up in instant-gratification. I'll try to summarize to the best of my ability.....

Our culture has lost sight of the things that are worth enjoying. Things such as having meaningful dialogue, reading great books (Plato, Aristotle, G.K. Chesterson etc.), listening to classical music. He said the reason for this, was due to our instant gratification. Because to truly enjoy things of this nature takes work. It often takes a lot more work than people are willing to do. If we don't receive enjoyment immediately, then its not worth the work. Another great example of our laziness is Art.
While at the camp one of the field trips we took was to the Getty Museum. I'll admit that going to look at art painted by some dead guys did not sound very exciting at first. However, after getting there, and discussing some of the art I found that it was very enjoyable. At one point there were about seven of us standing around one piece of art work by Rembrandt for over 30minutes!! I received so much insight and gained so much appreciation for that work of art that I was sad when it was time to leave. After having that experience I realized how much more enjoyable art could be. It was so much more satisfying than it would have been if I were to have stayed home and played Nintendo or something of that nature.

This is only one example of that real joy that is worth enjoying. So often we decide to substitute lesser joys for the real thing because they gratify us faster than a Rembrandt painting. We think that if we can just find more and more things to substitute it with, then in the end we'll be just as satisfied. On the contrary, we will be even more miserable. This is the reason why people don't like to learn or educate themselves either. It takes work!! But when one truly sees the joy of learning, the more he'll find it easier to enjoy things such as paintings, or great books. He'll have more of an appreciation for those things.

The hard question to answer now is, how does one bring our culture or our society to see that the things worth enjoying, are the things which take the most work? It is a question that has been circulating since the time of Plato and Socrates. I only hope that someday I can play a small part in giving people that glimpse of what experiencing true joy is. The Torrey Academy truly gave me the split second glimpse of what I was missing out on!!