Five Far Apart Thoughts

Usually I try to focus on only one thought or experience per blog posting. I have just had a very interesting 5 days which brought up 5 different reflections. So here goes.

1. Really big bucks. I attended a Board meeting of the Van Lunen Fellows Program. We provide executive management skills for administrators of faith-based schools. We get our fiscal resources from the Van Lunen Foundation. When Mr. Van Lunen died about 4 years ago he left behind a trust, a group of 4 trustees, some money and the simple instructions, “Do something good with this money.” The surprise: the money he was speaking of came to approximately $100 million. What “good” does someone do when suddenly having available $100 million?

2. What’s a university for? I also attended a conference of university professors. The focus was on teaching practices at the university level. The keynoter challenged us with the proposition that the sole function of a university professor is for the experience to teach the students to think. Is that correct? Does the university professor want the students only to think or does s/he have in mind a particular way in which they should think? Does the professor care about what conclusions the students reach from their thinking? Does it make any difference if the university is secular or church related?

3. Vices and Virtues. One of the outstanding lectures was on teaching students to reflect upon the 7 vices and their counterpart 7 virtues. The vices, defined as habits or character traits, are envy, vainglory, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust. The virtues, defined as excellences of characters, habits or disposition, are faith, hope, love, wisdom, justice, courage and temperance. So, what vice do I still have embedded in my character? What virtue do I feel I possess and which am I still seeking? (Note: I decided to try to help me answer that question by teaching an eight session course on the topic at my church.)

4. The limits of humor. On the plane I read Garrison Keillor’s newest book, Pilgrims. I decided that I did not like it. I thought that the author had lost any sense of sympathy for his characters and was just enjoying poking fun at their sincere eccentricities Am I fair? Does a writer need to have sympathy for the characters in his novel or does s/he just describe them and hopefully produce a few understanding chuckles?

5. Nobody knows me. To balance Garrison Keillor a bit I was reading the diary of the great Danish philosopher/theologian Soren Kierkegaaard. While still a young man he wrote this: “How awful it would be on Judgment Day when all souls return to life again … then to stand completely alone, alone and unknown to all.” Does this have anything to do with my decision to write a blog?