Too high-minded?

Note: I have failed, in this post, to philosophize without possums. I wonder if it is even possible for me to philosophize without possums?

Having friends who do not enjoy academic learning, I've learned to distance myself from elitism. I simply won't believe that learning in school is better than learning in life. I don't need to know American history to drive a car, and Occam's razor won't help me get a job. Every moment in philosophy class, I walk a tight wire - I love thinking about life, but the moment it becomes more important to me than helping people, I should drop the class.


Occam's razor: won't help me get a job, but might help me shave.

Don't get me wrong: I love learning. I love school, crazy though it may seem. As long as I am academically successful, I will enjoy school. But many people don't. Some are bitter about being unsuccessful in school; some were screwed by the system; some just don't think the knowledge they gain in school is useful to them. And who am I to say they're wrong? In conversation with a truly happy nonintellectual, I found myself in crisis: was college foolish? Am I missing out on great life experiences by furthering my education? It's taken me a long time to convince myself I'm not missing out (more on that in a later blog).

To me, Pythagoras' school rather vividly represents Baylor. A great system founded on high ideas, striving to help individuals achieve their highest potentials through education. I'd say our religion majors are an example of our akousmatoi, and other majors like mine represent the mathematikoi. Most of us are here to get into a business, but the religion majors are here because their Christian values matter more to them than business. They have every right to turn their lives in that direction. But I see a world whose business is business, not values.

We mathematikoi believe things, and we certainly have values. But seeing how the world works, seeing how a possum picks up my trash and uses it to make its life better – that teaches me more than philosophy class. I can't imagine a world where values were all that mattered. To adjust the quote Brittney used in class, I don't think “matters that matter” are all that matter (God, I sound like Heraclitus).


Possums: not often the subject of philosophy class.

I couldn't live in the world without the 'business' of the world. I couldn't live without the love I've experienced, the places I've been, the people I've known and unknown, the joints I shouldn't have smoked, or the trees I've hugged (that last one's a joke - but I do like trees), all things that often go unaddressed in religion and philosophy class. These things don't always “matter,” but pieced together, they make life work – and matter.

I have a burning ambition to simply work and play and be in the world, and thinking about my life holds only a small place in my routine. I suppose you could call me a passive liver; but I don't particularly enjoy the idea of being called an internal organ. So just call me one of the mathematekoi.