Greetings,
We just put the girls to bed after an entire day of fighting them. OY. I wonder what all I could get done in a day if I had all of their energy. While my bruises are healing, and I’m catching my breathe, I decided to go ahead and write this letter about our month. April - what happened? We started the month celebrating my dad’s 50th birthday, and I finished teaching my first semester of philosophy. My reviews came back mostly good. I had one student say that I was among his/her favorites and another say that I had a gift for teaching philosophy while always inserting truth into the conversation. On the flip side I had one student say that I went out of my way to offend him and shake his testimony. He called me a blasphemer and anti-mormon. He called upon the college to supervise my class because I am out of control and both he and his wife agree that philosophy will make any mormon who studies it question their faith and testimony. So, from that student I learned Mormons should stay as far away from philosophy as possible and I should probably be burned at the stake for heresy. Needless to say, the review caught me completely off guard because I was unaware any of my students felt that way. I knew them all by name and tried to talk with each one before class started. Whoever the student was, either they never came to class or were being a bit two-faced.
I will admit that the review shook me a bit and I find myself hesitating a bit before I jump into class wondering if there is a closed minded student in the class that is not paying attention and will take my words the wrong way. I will admit that philosophy is incredibly dangerous if you approach it with a closed mind, because when that happens, everything in philosophy is perceived to attack you in a very personal way. The constant attacks will beat you down after time. However, if approached with an open mind (read: humility) the truths emerge and the falsehoods fall to the wayside. The more I look at it, close-mindedness is a very real precursor to selfishness and dogmatism (yes - I just implied that dogmatists are selfish - I’m a heretic I can say that) (Morgan: this is turning into a philosophy lesson) (Derik: oops - ranting and raving again - but heck if I’m going to erase what I just wrote - moving on)
I spent the entire week break between semesters grading my students final papers (Don’t get me started on those) and working. My parents, the twins, Miriam, and Lindsay used that time to go on a cruise to Mexico while we enjoyed the snow in Idaho. It was nice seeing everyone at the little get together. Who knows when the next one of those is going to be? (Morgan: eh, July) School started again for me. I’m using the book that I wrote and already had a couple of students calling me on it wondering how much I am making off of it. When I told them nothing - I did it out of charity (and a resume builder) that made them be quiet for a while. I think the majority of my class is going to be a hoot. There are still two students that I am trying to figure out. All in time, I guess.
Morgan and I attended a department dinner for the Humanities and philosophy department up on campus. That was a nice dinner. It was catered by Johnny Carinos in Idaho Falls. It was really good. The professors there started talking Humanities smack - that was a riot to listen to. They were bragging about who had been to the most European countries, who could speak the most foreign languages, who could read Sir Gawain or Beowulf in their original languages, who could name the obscure Italian operetta, etc…I wish I could have taped that conversation and then played it for a business class, ha! Or better yet - the body building class. But the food and company were fantastic, and Morgan and I were the youngest there.
On the home front, the girls are enthralled with patty-cake and Kyla loves to grab your hands and make you do it. So you sing the rhyme, but she will be clapping your hands together and make you go through the motions. She loves to be the grown up. Both girls can now locate their noses on request - Kyla mostly locates the inside of her nose; so much for the grown up thing. Daria is quickly picking up a shoe fetish. She loves shoes. It doesn’t matter who owns the shoes, she wants to wear them. They love to go outside. We just wish that our apartment complex will do the spring cleanup on the lawn areas to get all of the winter trash off of them so we have somewhere to take the girls - some warmer weather would be nice as well.
I asked Morgan what she has done. She’s cared for people and has tried to keep everyone sane and healthy. She has done a wonderful job at that. She really is a wonderful woman. I think that is all that we have to report on for April. Wishing you all the best,
The Robertsons
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2 comments:
Well, you being a heretic really isn't a surprise, but your dad is 50!?!?! j/k.
As far as "interesting" conversation and people trying to 1-up each other, I felt the same way at the conference I just attended (but with different vocab and different bragging rights [like 8-bit Nintendo and stuff]).
If you ever find out who that student was you should warn him to stear clear of any science classes as well because he might learn things that change his perspective. And he probably shouldn't plan on living/being successful anywhere outside of the mormon bubble because he will be forced to interact with people who will question his faith. Actually, Rob could probably tell us something about living in the mormon bubble and being asked to defend the faith.
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