Recalcitrant Egg 3

As a high school freshman, we took a history course called Western Civilization that started with an introduction to ancient Greece (one can argue if that is the appropriate starting point, but I'm not interested in that right at the moment). In particular, we were introduced at a rudimentary level to Greek philosophy, and the fundamental question, What is the good life?  This was not the first time I had been exposed to this question. Having grown up in a Catholic home where we attended church every week, I had heard priests throughout my life explaining the religious argument for the good life, but this was really the first time I had heard a secular discussion.  And it was more of a discussion than an assertion, which made it more interesting to me. This question really gripped me as a pimply, hormone infused 14-year old, and has gripped me ever since then, even though the pimples are (mostly) gone and I'd like to think I have a little more discipline than my teen self.  I p

As I mentioned previously , One of the books I read recently as part of my deliberate effort to read more for personal development was Arthur Brooks’ new book, From Strength to Strength. I have a link to an interview with Brooks below in Listen. I was going to lead off with a bit of a discussion about the book this week, but as I was listening to the interview, I heard Brooks reference a line from Saint Thomas Aquinas, and it has obsessed me for the last 48 hours or so. The quote is: “To love is to will the good of the other.” There are lots of ways to love, but Brooks (by way of Aquinas) was trying to direct us away from erotic love, and to also reconceptualize love as an act, rather than as a feeling.  Part of the reason this definition really struck me is because I’m now in my 10th year of teaching, and I remember distinctly when the very first cohort of Army-Baylor students graduated from the didactic phase of our course, I remember going back up to the empty classroom and thinking

My daughter K shared this TED Talk with me: https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think I thought it was a clever presentation that highlights how language changes our ability to perceive. It made me think of my first experiences working in a hospital. I would go into meetings and people would be using all these words and ideas that I didn’t understand and I was lost. I knew they were speaking English, but I couldn’t follow half of what was going on. But it was more than just the words themselves, it was the way they communicated. There is a system of reasoning buried in the language that is unique to healthcare delivery. Our language evolves to deal with the problems we have to solve. This is a fun one - definitely worth 14 minutes.