Summer Thinking Points
This blog has been dormant far too long, but when school’s out, I have better things to do than sit around and re-examine life and all its subtleties. I have compiled a brief argument/manifestation of thought on a plethora of subjects, so motivated by giving release to the wild and rambunctious analyses bouncing around inside my head, I have decided a compromise between lifestyle and expectations is long overdue; so here it is in all of its succinct glory:
1.) It bothers me the way you don’t even have to major in a particular subject in college to teach it in high school. What separates your AP Chemistry teacher from you, an AP Chemistry student, is probably nothing more than four years and piece of paper that more likely than not says something like History on it. At least where I’m from. I feel like English teachers (or perhaps, in a larger school, foreign language teachers) are the most qualified staff members in the average high school. English, which is in high school, probably the most pointless subject. I can say this as an English major. It picks up its importance in college and holds a fair amount through the eighth grade. High school English is all plot progression and literary terms. You may read a few books that clue you in to the cultural codes of your time, but you do not develop the critical thinking skills that give an English course its true value. Never mind that you will use math every day of your life, and civics a few times a week. History is a classic lesson in leadership and in avoiding the mistakes others have already made for you. Languages offer important communication skills in a quickly diversifying world. But learning the difference between a simile and a metaphor or how to interpret Shakespeare’s diction is simply not going to get you far in life.
2.) One of my friends was telling me the other day that the basis of his apologetics argument was that Christianity has been around for 2 000 years, and what else has survived the test of time to that extent? Well, classical mythology, for one. It started about 1000 B.C. and persevered straight through the introduction of Christianity into sixth century Athens, not to mention that you do find the the occasional anomaly who still believes it to this day. To put it into context, classical mythology survived as long as its supporting empires. It was introduced by the Greeks and spread far and wide as the Greeks did, and then was picked up by the Roman Empire, which being the major world power at the time, spread it around as well. Christianity has been around so long because it was adopted as the main religion of Western culture, which is inarguably the most influential population in the word today. Not that I don’t believe in Jesus, just that I don’t think surviving 2 000 years of changing culture is a firm argument for its veracity. That’s just the way the world works, those in charge determine the information (much of which is propaganda) that gets disseminated to its populace. Also keep in mind that the church provides a good moral code to society that encourages people to raise their children in the church regardless of religious convictions. It is so embedded in our culture, one must certainly be acquainted with it to a reasonable extent in order to be accepted.
3.) Once in a job interview, I was asked the question, “What is something in your life that you had to do right the first time?” I didn’t really have a good answer to this question, but it hit me later on just how ironic that was. I mean, life as a whole is something you have to do right the first time. You don’t get a second chance. Even if you believe in reincarnation or whatever (which I don’t, for the record), you have to admit that it will be different the next time around. You won’t be the same person and you won’t remember the experiences from which you learned all of life’s little lessons. We spend all of our lives learning from our mistakes so that we can go on and reflect what we have learned in future situations so that we don’t make the same mistakes twice, but the picture we only get one shot at. I could elaborate on that more, but sometimes I think its better to just let people meditate on it right there.
4.) Tonight in church we were talking about abortion and it got me thinking. The whole situation has been so political lately that I’ve almost tried my hardest to just ignore it. Most of me feels like the government shouldn’t get involved, but at the same time, I know that it is the government’s money that funds these clinics. I know that where I am in my life right now, if I got pregnant, I don’t really feel I’m set up to have a kid. I know that people much worse off, much busier than I am do have children, but I have come to the conclusion that they are much stronger, much wiser than I am. I feel, though, that if I can sit here and say that I am not ready to have a kid, then it is my responsibility to make sure that the situation doesn’t arise. I know that there are situations beyond my control that I guess should be handled on a case-by-case basis and there just is no cover-all answer. And as for whether or not I believe that the man involved should have any say in the matter, I guess I feel that if we’re at the point in our relationship where I’m going to let him get me pregnant, than I probably value his opinion and trust him, and if he told me he was going to stick around and be a part of my life as well as our child’s than I may begin to feel that it would be a good enough support system to make it work, if it was important to him. I don’t know if I could even bring myself to actually go through with an abortion. It’s something that I can’t really even fathom until it becomes a real-life, in-my-face situation, which is why I feel guys shouldn’t really be telling women that they should or shouldn’t have an abortion. They can’t even conceive all that’s involved in that because it will never feel real to them. The situation will never arise for them, they will never have to make that choice. I feel they are perfectly welcome to bring all the input they want as long as they leave it up to the woman to decide. Not only is it her body, but it’s her conscience, it’s her emotion, her connection with the baby that the man could never ever relate to. Anyway, that just put a whole new dynamic into this blog that I never wanted to arise, but feel free to comment as you wish.
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