Philosophy

When Wisdom Grabbed Me

By in Uncategorized, Culture, Philosophy, Politics, Relationships, Spirituality Tags: , ,

 

When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed. Let me explain.

I was a horrible student as a kid. When I say “horrible,” I mean horrible. My third-grade teacher once called my parents and told them, flat out, “Paul is dumb.” I barely graduated high school. My GPA was around 2.0.

I didn’t become interested in learning until my 20s. I enrolled in a psychology class when I was 22. Not to pursue a degree, but to learn more about psychology, of which I knew nothing. After that, it was a western civilization class. Then music history.

When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed.

Later, via C.S. Lewis I was introduced to some philosophers: Plato and Aristotle, mostly, but later Augustine and Descartes. I started reading them. Man, that was tough! I knew I needed help, like a coach. So in my 20s, I audited philosophy courses at UCI Irvine. Eventually, I got serious, and I ended up with a BA in philosophy from UCLA. I then received a second degree in philosophy and MA from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.

 

At shot this on my Leica Q2 last week. Royce Hall, UCLA

C.S. Lewis helped me stay determined with his words, “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”

All this work was done while I had a flourishing career.

Over the years some have asked why I didn’t get more “practical” degrees. More than a few men have said, “You could have done an MBA.”

Wasn’t interested.

Philosophy doesn’t teach you what to think – facts, data, information – it teaches you how to think. Moreover, education should never be a means to an end — it’s an end in itself.

Too many today view education as a task you must “get through,” so you can go get a better job. Parents teach their children this canard, drilling into their young minds the importance of good grades and test scores and extra cirriculars, so the kids go get into a “top university.”

I get it; we want our children to get decent jobs, which, we’re told, leads to better lives. Makes sense. Fact is though, studies show the “American dream” often doesn’t work. Making more money does not always lead to greater fulfillment.

Being stuck in some field that you ultimately hate, having to live for the weekends and vacation – I question it.

Later in life, countless men (women less) wonder why they gave the best years of their lives, decades, to climbing the corporate ladder, the pursuit of wealth and status, “success” — only to find little meaning and sense of purpose.

Treating education and learning as a means to an end — and this sounds strong I realize — is destroying our nation today. Some talk about how we need a spiritual revival. Perhaps we do. But I’m certain we need a revival of thinking, reasoning, and the pursuit of education for the sake of learning, being well-informed and finding our true passions.

We need to be seeking wisdom. When Wisdom grabbed me my life changed.

If you want to learn more on this topic, watch my new video at the link below.

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

By in Uncategorized, Personal, Philosophy Tags: ,

 

Jack-of-all-trades. Hack-of-all-Trades. That me, if you want to know the truth.

Today I will spend time with my Leica. I still barely know how to use it (not enough time learn), how to utilize natural light (not enough time to learn), how to capture the right blend of uniformity amidst variety (not enough time to learn), who to shoot (nobody willing).

For no other reason than nine lives lore, I can find myself wishing to be a cat. Why? How else to pursue the nagging passions?

In trying to cram them into this one, earthly, life, like today I’m  Paul-the-photographer, the result is the quintessential jack of all trades, master of none.

Paul, the hack-of-all-trades.

Fact is, I specialize at exactly nothing, other than the specialty of little bit of this and little bit of that.

Nine lives Paul, no doubt, would be posting today of the limitations of having only nine lives.

If I had to choose today? Most likely:

#1 Photographer: more of humanity than nature, in the Annie Leibovitz realm.

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

#2 Revolutionary: Going all-in like  Jesus (more than anyone else) and MLK and Gandhi and Bob Dylan and Harriet Tubman and Wittgenstein and Saint Francis and Bonhoeffer and Luther and Céaser Chávez.  (Please visit forthechildren.org to sign the pledge and help me on this one.)

#3 Botanist/zoologist: Because Albert Schweitzer.

#4 Philosopher: In the spirit of Aristotle. My BA and MA helped greatly, but only almost scratched the surface of understanding metaphysics, epistemology, logic, aesthetics, ethics.

#5 Geologist: I know almost nothing about how the earth is composed nor how plate tectonics work, and that bugs me.

#6 Gypsy: A full-time observer. And truth-teller, no matter the cost. Just to travel to and from, to lick the globe, minus the encumbrances of money, schedules, social pressures to be “responsible.”

#7 Cook: Not a chef — a farmer who spends as much time attending to the ingredients (soil, sun, water, freshness) as much as the cooking part.

#8 Historian: Not sure which era nor region. Eighty-one lives wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my craving to learn about all those people from all those places during all those times.

#9 Musician: I play bass (decently), guitar (average at best), trumpet and piano (below average at best).

#10 Writer

Are you a hack-of-all-trades, too?

P.S. I forgot art historian, especially into the minds of Van Gogh, Chagall, Picasso… Oh, and a college professor (philosophy), oceanographer, architect, triathlete, yoga instructor, theologian, hermit.

Front Line Workers (and thinkers)

By in Parenting, Philosophy Tags: , , ,

This is my daughter, Bree. She is a student at Columbia Medical School. Because she works in the hospital, she was able to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
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Growing up, I indoctrinated my children. Often to their chagrin, there were lectures, tutors, and many conversations about philosophy, faith, politics, and science — the stuff that really matters in life.
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But I never tried to never tell them what to think — I taught them HOW to think. I taught them that knowledge isn’t the same as belief. That truth and certainty are, also, very different.
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They learned the difference between a priori and a posteriori, sound versus unsound premises, logical fallacies, and how to spot the ever-so-common false dualism.
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They were to respect those of other faiths, no faiths, other political parties (and I never revealed to them who I voted for or which party I belonged to) — that it was easier to hate your opponent than to take the time to understand his or her point of view.
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Finally, I taught them to trust the guilds of science — empiricism — and beware of the allure of trendy conspiracy theories (which are based on the fallacy of affirming the consequent). That the Center For Disease Control, The National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, and The American Medical Association — tens of thousands of the world’s greatest scientists and doctors — develop and administer vaccinations for viruses such as polio, smallpox, measles, rabies. Countless lives, as a result, are saved.
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I’m proud of Bree, and those like her on the front lines who study and trust science and give their lives to keeping us safe.

I Surrender: Day 19

By in Uncategorized, Foster Children, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Spirituality Tags: , , , ,

Surrender. You can only do so much. 

Sometimes, you’ve gotta let go.

Some things you can change. Some things you can’t.

You can pray. 

You can act.

You can raise awareness.

But sometimes, surrender. Because you can only do so much.

The world is full of suffering. Insidious kinds of suffering. I wrote about suffering here.

Atheists use suffering as an argument against the existence of God.

Their logic goes like this:

  1. If God exists, he must be good
  2. If he is good, he would not allow needless suffering (like children being locked up in homes with their abusers)
  3. The world is full of needless suffering
  4. Therefore, God does not exist

Philosophers call this puzzle the Problem of Evil: Technically, The epistemic question posed by evil is whether the world contains undesirable states of affairs that provide the basis for an argument that makes it unreasonable to believe in the existence of God.

Some suffering is from natural evil — disease and disasters.

The other is due to human evil — things people do to others, bringing physical and emotional (or both) pain.

***

(As an aside, I’m reading The Book Thief for the first time.)

Humans can’t do anything to prevent natural evil; we can’t prevent earthquakes or tsunamis or tornadoes. 

Surrender.

But human evil — physical abuse and rape and verbal abuse and greed — can be stopped. 

People have choices. (Though I do hold to a libertarian view of free will, I still, often, find myself afraid that most of our actions are done without decision — we are in autopilot more than we want to believe.)

Even so, human evil is prevalent. (You and I have played our own parts in it.)

***

When my children were young, one of our prayers before bedtime was the Serenity Prayer. We’d pray it after the Our Father, Glory Be, then Anglican prayer of repentance. Anyway, it’s not really Christian, but it’s a good one: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Acceptance and surrender are the same thing.

 The good news is that human evil can be curbed through education, intervention, legal sanction, attending 12-Step meetings.

But even then, you can only do so much. Evil still happens.

Children are still hurting.

I Surrender.

Fixing It: Day Three.

By in Foster Children, Parenting, Philosophy, Relationships, Religion, Spirituality Tags: , , ,

Fixing it 

Because things break. Then they need fixing. They go wrong. Then they need to be made right. 

A crooked painting. Flat tire. Drop your phone and the screen shatters. Things get crooked and punctured and cracked. Then we straighten, repair, fix. 

Same thing with our bodies. Broken femur. High blood pressure. A new virus. So get a cast, change your diet and exercise, (hopefully) find a vaccine. 

The word justice is simply that – the idea of fixing or bringing rectitude to a thing that is broken. Making something right. 

Fixing it. 

Social justice is fixing or brining justice to a social issue. After a hurricane, we bring food and medical supplies to victims. After September 11, 2001, we rushed to ground zero to bring physical relief. 

Much philanthropy consists of people caring for people — feeding the hungry, giving clothes to the naked, helping the sick in body, advocating on behalf of the marginalized.

If you study the life of Jesus, bringing social justice to the poor, sick, oppressed, outsider — this is the great legacy of true religion, caring for widows and orphans, including speaking-up on their behalf to their oppressors.

A kind of social justice consumes my heart daily: social justice toward children.

Of course, children are always innocent and vulnerable, always. Those in foster care — our modern-day orphans — suffer perhaps the worst kind of injustice. It wasn’t a bomb or an earthquake or famine that caused their horror – it was their parent. 

Neglect, abuse, then abandonment, from the one who was supposed to love, protect, nurture. 

It is National Foster Care Awareness Month. I am writing a post each day of May. I wrote on the first and second.

During Covid-19, these children are suffering like never before. Incidents of death due to child abuse are escalating at alarming rates. In a March 24th piece in The Atlantic titled The Kids Aren’t All Right, the social injustice is made clear: 

“For children who spend time in multiple households, rely on outside figures for guidance or mentoring..prolonged social-distancing measures will mean profound separation from some people who provide care.”

It doesn’t have to be so. 

We can bring justice. 

Social justice.

Fixing it. 

For the children, 

Paul 

www.rfk.org

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