This summer, my husband and I made a day trip to Stockholm, Wisconsin, a tiny town on the Mississippi with a population of about only 100, but many art galleries and shops. I found this mug at one of the shops.
The danger of critical thinking
In the current issue of First Things, editor R. R. Reno writes about the danger that arises when critical thinking operates more in fear of error than desire for truth.
Some excerpts:
Clear-minded and scrupulous analysis clears the underbrush of error—a very good thing to do—but it cannot plant the seeds of truth; it burns away the weeds but won’t fertilize the fields. To do so we must be receptive rather than cautious. We need to develop the habit of credulity, which literally means the capacity and willingness to accept or believe, for that is the only way truth can enter into our minds.
~~
A mentality too quick to find reasons not to nurture convictions runs the risk of ending up more empty than accurate.
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If we see this danger—the danger of truths lost, insights missed, convictions never formed—then our approach to reasoning changes, and the burdens of proof shift. We begin to cherish books and teachers and friends who push us, as it were, onto certain trains of thought, romancing us with the possibilities of truth rather than always cautioning and checking our tendency to believe. Errors risked now seem worth the rich reward of engrossing, life-commanding truths—the truths that are accessible only to a mind passionate with the intimacy of conviction rather than coldly and critically distant.
Read the entire piece here: "Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking." Scroll down; it starts in the middle of the page.
The Philosopher Kings
When I was in first grade, a boy in my class--whose name I remember but will withhold out of courtesy--threw up. He was sitting at his desk and out it came, all over the floor with a splash. The teacher managed the episode calmly and professionally, directing all of us, except the boy, to go out into the hallway, with half the class on either side, and sit single-file along the brick wall. The uniformed janitor then arrived and we all knew why. We next saw our teacher walk the sick boy down the hall toward the office, presumably to his waiting mother.
It seemed a long while until the janitor emerged again. He walked through the middle of our group, pushing his industrial-sized metal bucket and mop. For some reason, his walk out of that room and down the hall, is one of my most vivid memories of grade school. I watched him and wondered if he had pictures of anyone in his wallet. I wondered if he was lonely. I wondered if when he left school at the end of the day whether anyone listened to what he had to say. I remember wondering those three things about him. That janitor, his walk and those questions, have continued to nudge themselves into my mind from time to time in all the years since.
This week I watched a documentary that caught my eye because it was about the inner lives of janitors. "The Philosopher Kings," released in 2009, films and interviews eight janitors who work in some of the most elite colleges and universities in America, including Stanford, Caltech, Princeton, Cornish College of the Arts, Cornell, University of Florida, Duke, and University of California Berkeley. It's a fascinating and moving documentary that reveals the challenges these eight have overcome in their lives, the dreams and goals they are pursuing, the sacrifices they make for others, what they learn from the institutions at which they work, and their significant inner wisdom.
The film is punctuated with a number of great quotes, including this one from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Do you think the porter and the cook have no anecdotes, no experiences, no wonders for you? The walls of their minds are scrawled all over with thoughts.
They shall one day bring a lantern and read the inscriptions."
Think and drink
I wish I'd come up with the idea for this place. It would have made a perfect distribution site/headquarters for Just Think.
Idea saturated and book laden
Calvin College hosted the 2008 Festival of Faith and Writing on April 16-18 and I was one of the 2000+ attendees. Spending a couple minutes on Google should link you up to many fine reviews of the conference and of specific presentations. Personally, I recommend the reviews on Life In the Slow Lane as a good place to start. I’ll not reinvent the wheel here and so will take a different tack, because I don’t want to let the event go wholly undocumented on this site.
At this conference, the exchange of ideas is so massive--as evidenced by the multitude of presentations to choose from and the stacks of books and periodicals in the exhibit hall--it is amost paralyzing. Like a tourist in New York City, one could never hope to sample all the offerings. It must be sufficient to absorb the overall milieu and pick a few paths to explore at closer range.
The milieu to be absorbed was one of reading, writing, thinking, and studying. Despite the fact that multiple presenting authors made a point of saying their work and life were about the heart/soul and not the mind, no one translates life--personal or universal--onto the page with integrity without generous application of mental power. And self-discipline. The joy was in seeing such an outpouring of work, from multiple faith traditions, that was an organic product of mind and heart/soul. I came home with a fresh supply of role models.
A major tenant of modern literary writing is ‘no ideas but in things,’ but I find ideas/concepts in and of themselves exciting. Here are some ideas or snippets of ideas from various presentations that I brought home like souvenirs: the deep and necessary connection between prayer and writing (Mary Karr); what makes writing moral? (Mary Gordon); confession alone does not equal truth (Leslie Leyland Fields); living and finding meaning in life is to bear the burden of mystery (Elizabeth Strout); whether or not your dreams come true, God is God (Uwem Akpa); stillness, silence, waiting (Haven Kimmel); "narrative theology" in the lives of the many instead of the headlines of the few (Krista Tippett).
I also came home with five new books, all but one purchased from the Eighth Day Books table: Speaking of Faith, Krista Tippett; She Got Up Off the Couch, Haven Kimmel; Outlands, Robert Finch; Thirty Days, Paul Mariani; and Looking Before and After, Alan Jacobs.
The conference’s website offers links to author websites, lists of publications, and other resources.
Blessing of a library
The dorm move-in went well. One of my son's roommates also moved in yesterday and they appear to be getting along just fine. The other roommate doesn't arrive until later this week. The room will be a bit cramped as it is a forced-triple. Housing is short and so they are squeezing three persons into spaces made for two. Opportunity for lessons in living in community, right? Plus a housing credit on his account, which is also a good thing.
Orientation begins today. Interestingly, there is a parallel orientation for students and parents with both tracks lasting until Thursday afternoon.
Visiting one of the libraries yesterday, I saw this blessing written on a plaque:
O GOD
MASTER OF ALL KNOWLEDGE
MERCIFULLY POUR FORTH
THY BLESSINGS
UPON THIS LIBRARY
THAT IT MAY DAILY GROW
FROM DAY TO DAY
AND THAT ALL WHO COME HERE
TO HELP OR TO STUDY
MAY ADVANCE IN KNOWLEDGE
OF THINGS DIVINE AND HUMAN
AND GROW IN THY LOVE
THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD
AMEN
[No author credit given]
I hope that one of the things they tell the students in orientation is to read and reflect on those words every time they enter that library.
Living (is it really living?) with a "no think" policy
A man came up to me after I finished giving a talk on thinking awhile back. He said to me, "I've gone through my whole life without thinking. I'm not about to start now." I'm wondering how he's been getting along and if he's been able to maintain his "no think" policy.