 |
| P h i l o s o p h y |
| Beauty is truth, truth beauty... ~John Keats |
| I do not go around telling people that I am a philosopher. Yet it never fails that someone notices a book that I've carried, or reads post-it notes I place around, or has scanned my paper journal I carry with me, and soon enough I am labeled "a philosopher". |
| B U G G E R ! |
|
When this happens I am asked to
discuss
something philosophical,
give some great proof as though I were a burning bush in the
middle of the desert. No burning bushes. More than not I am a disappointment to folks when instead of delivering a fiery sermon of great and towering intellect, I ask them questions. |
|
What do you love? Why do you love it? Could you ever not love it? What part of you loves? |
| Above all else I have a love of learning, a never-ending "why". I am not a philosopher, but a questioner... my life is a living question. Perhaps it all boils down to one of the first bits of wisdom that my father instilled within me when I was boy. |
|
"Son,
always do what you think is right. If you believe it is so,
I'll stand by you." ~ Dad |
|
That was it, I wanted to do what I
thought was right. The only problem was... what was right?
Although raised in the Deep South, I somehow managed to "why" my
way out of the dominant cultural beliefs. Partly because I
joined the Marines and was exposed to different people and
cultures, partly because the ideas never took a deep enough root
within me, and partly because I always had the "whys". It wasn't always easy and I've contradicted myself countless times. Yet this matters little to me, for I keep holding to that one dictum given me by my father... always do what I think is right. You might say that I've been a student of ethics my whole life. And more changes are yet to come. |
