The title of my blog takes on a bit more meaning at this hour as today represents the end of my 25th year of existence and tomorrow begins my 26th. A new year, a promise of new adventures, new relationships, new dreams, new challenges, new passions, a year of new life. I am a bit frustrated maybe even dissatisfied at the state of my life in its present form, I have found that I am of little use to anything. I dont mean to say that I am useless, but that I have found no place where I may be used. I have done nothing significant with my life at this point other than graduate high school and college which, quite frankly, were not even challenges, actually, the challenge was getting through without getting expelled. The point is that so far I have nothing of significance to show for the work that I have done for the past seven years and a half of post-high school education. Though it may seem to be a bit negative, I must state that I am excited about the fact that school has been a catalyst to appropriate and foster depth in my life in much more holistic and full way, a way that, had I not attended school, would not be possible. School has given me life through the encounters with the great depths of the humanities and through the power of the study of divinity. I would have never been able to appreciate and respect critical thinking and powerful writing in the manner in which i do at this moment. I have been faced with the ideas that have puzzled and intrigued mankind for thousands of years. Mankind is by nature a spiritual being, a being who's fullness is only complete when he has mastered or at least contemplated the depths of both his soul and body. Mankind has wondered and studied about the divine for thousands of uninterrupted years and I am happy to inherit the power and freedom of this magnificent legacy. On my birthday this year i wish that in the years to come I may find a place where I might influence a generation of humans to foster care for both soul and body, for both god and the human race, for both heaven and the earth.
John Henry Newman sets out to defend the idea of Liberal (when I say "liberal" it is in the sense of a Liberal Arts degree)University for the training of young men. (His book is aimed at men and for the purpose of men... I dont know if the education of women at that time was still frowned upon). Within a series of nine discourses (which he initially delivered at the inaugural year of the University in Ireland)he sets out to defend his picture of what a University education should look like. Newman's arguments are logical and well defended with the arguments building, like a tower is built, upon one another. Each discourse takes up a specific thesis and is defended in the following pages. He first demonstrates that Truth is One, that is composed of one overarching, interrelated matrix. There are many systems of thought that are a play, but nonetheless, all Truth is delicately intertwined so that if you neglect one aspect of the Truth in essence you are unraveling the binds...