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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

On thinking.

Originally posted to Xanga on June 17, 2008

"Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered." C.S. Lewis

This past week I spent some time challenging myself with tough questions such as . . . why do we value tradition, can we know anything if it is not revealed to us by God, what's the difference between romantic love and comrade love, and how did Ryan Seacrest become famous? I discussed these questions with respected peers and adults, and now I've continued to do some thinking about my questions by myself.

It's really hard.

I'm not kidding. I have gotten such headaches and once in a while I wonder if the confusion is worth it. I went to go answer a tough and thoughtful question posted by a friend and thought to myself, "Whoa, that's too much to thing about. I'll hold off answering that one." But that's just the thing - often times we don't want to challenge ourselves to think deeper. It's hard! But the benefits I have reaped are 100% worth it. Our brains are muscles - the more we use them to ponder, the easier pondering becomes.

It's so hard, but try it, it's really awesome.

2 comments:

Art said...

I've read all the posts before this now. It's eye-opening to read what you've been pondering: who you are, who you used to be.

This post marks for me the time when I really met you. =)

A&A said...

I was thinking about that recently, about when I /really/ met you. I just remember sitting behind you in Inkster/Siebert octafinal round and passing papers during the prep time with questions on them, and then talking about them later, and I was like, "What took me so long?"

And then, shortly after that hiding from the Nazis while discussing modesty and socialization in an exploration of the building. :D