Saturday, August 19, 2006
Saturday, August 12, 2006
"Know Thy Self"
I have recently returned from once again another intellectually stimulating, mind blowing, self-esteem shattering, flourishing of my soul....Wheatstone Academy!! The week is intense, more intense than anything I have ever experienced. I can literally feel my mind expand into uncharted territory with the selfish fear of never returning. It is a thorough examination of oneself, to understand how completely useless our culture has rendered us by mechanizing our education. It is at the Wheatstone academy that they teach us "true" education. An education that can't help but transform one's life by self examination and rigorous discourse. There one is freed from the noise of business and brainless socialization, compensated by taking part in the great dialectic and the constant intake of beauty through art, music, and dance. I cannot give a sufficient definition of this conference without belittling it in some way. However, I think the best I have heard so far is: "I go BOOM!!!"
This past week I have grown more than in the past 17 years of my life. The week challenged me to step outside the box (an all to0 comfortable place) and to truly talk with others about my ideas and questions. Because if one does not make audible one's own thoughts, they will end up with many false beliefs which only leads to damaging their soul (narcissism is not healthy!). However, this growth does not happen without the help of the staff. They are all incredibly committed to helping the young chums (students) who are slowly but surely growing more and more in the life of the mind.
So what did I take away most of all from this conference you're wondering? Probably more than I could articulate in order to satisfy your curiosity. "Ok", you might say, "buy why? Why put yourself through that if living a normal schedule life is just fine?" I'm not going to pretend to have the answer, if by answer you mean something you can remember to use for a test. No I think the answer lies in the actual experience of the examined life itself. It is like trying to define the timeless. It is an experience, rather a lifestyle, so right, so intrinsically complicated and fulfilling that words become entirely false propaganda. In its essence however, it is healthy. Healthy in relation to the soul, and the flourishing of.
A sort of fragmentation has occurred in our culture causing us to pull ourselves apart in order to "succeed" in life. Instead of bringing our head, heart, and hands, to the work field, we bring our hands alone. Likewise in academia, where the only part of our beings we use is our mind. This cannot be healthy, not just because it makes us ineffective (however that is a huge part of it) but because it does not allow us to live. There is no education in academia if we leave the doing and loving out of sync with our mind.
Wheatstone academy in a sense is the introduction to and the actual training of bringing all three parts of our soul together.
Through the course of the week we read many short stories by the inklings (Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, George Macdonald, etc.), who realized the power of story and the sub-creation of ideas through stories (e.g. fairy tales). However, the week culminated to the final discussion of G.K. Chesterton's book, "The Man Who Was Thursday - A Nightmare". It is an amazing book with many parallels between characters and the creation story from Genesis. The mind of G.K.C. is incredibly sharp and witty, that truly he is the only man who could ever conceive of such a fairy tale! While reading the book, I was so caught up in the action of the story that I was entirely unaware of the deep implications and even relationship between the characters and the days of creation. After the discourse of this profound book, the words of Dr. Sanders rang even more true in my mind, "Unless a well rounded mind is brought to a book, one will only find himself in a text."
Well, I have not even scratched the surface of the incredible week I have had, so you can expect more topics being written as I slowly work through everything I learned and realized I didn't know. I will try not to wait another month before posting!!
This past week I have grown more than in the past 17 years of my life. The week challenged me to step outside the box (an all to0 comfortable place) and to truly talk with others about my ideas and questions. Because if one does not make audible one's own thoughts, they will end up with many false beliefs which only leads to damaging their soul (narcissism is not healthy!). However, this growth does not happen without the help of the staff. They are all incredibly committed to helping the young chums (students) who are slowly but surely growing more and more in the life of the mind.
So what did I take away most of all from this conference you're wondering? Probably more than I could articulate in order to satisfy your curiosity. "Ok", you might say, "buy why? Why put yourself through that if living a normal schedule life is just fine?" I'm not going to pretend to have the answer, if by answer you mean something you can remember to use for a test. No I think the answer lies in the actual experience of the examined life itself. It is like trying to define the timeless. It is an experience, rather a lifestyle, so right, so intrinsically complicated and fulfilling that words become entirely false propaganda. In its essence however, it is healthy. Healthy in relation to the soul, and the flourishing of.
A sort of fragmentation has occurred in our culture causing us to pull ourselves apart in order to "succeed" in life. Instead of bringing our head, heart, and hands, to the work field, we bring our hands alone. Likewise in academia, where the only part of our beings we use is our mind. This cannot be healthy, not just because it makes us ineffective (however that is a huge part of it) but because it does not allow us to live. There is no education in academia if we leave the doing and loving out of sync with our mind.
Wheatstone academy in a sense is the introduction to and the actual training of bringing all three parts of our soul together.
Through the course of the week we read many short stories by the inklings (Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, George Macdonald, etc.), who realized the power of story and the sub-creation of ideas through stories (e.g. fairy tales). However, the week culminated to the final discussion of G.K. Chesterton's book, "The Man Who Was Thursday - A Nightmare". It is an amazing book with many parallels between characters and the creation story from Genesis. The mind of G.K.C. is incredibly sharp and witty, that truly he is the only man who could ever conceive of such a fairy tale! While reading the book, I was so caught up in the action of the story that I was entirely unaware of the deep implications and even relationship between the characters and the days of creation. After the discourse of this profound book, the words of Dr. Sanders rang even more true in my mind, "Unless a well rounded mind is brought to a book, one will only find himself in a text."
Well, I have not even scratched the surface of the incredible week I have had, so you can expect more topics being written as I slowly work through everything I learned and realized I didn't know. I will try not to wait another month before posting!!
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