Day: December 7, 2016

The girl said, “I’ve never been anywhere except Colorado, California, and Arizona.” She through up her hands in exasperation. I didn’t know what to say, thinking that her seeing three states was more than so many less privileged people had ever done. I thought about the homeless veterans I saw on the corner outside of Walmart and the families who I knew only by name or initial on the side of a christmas donation box. I thought about what I have and what I have done in my life and what is to come and I felt sad.

I am reminded of my privilege more and more as I am reminded of how little the people I teach realize their own. I am schooling a generation of people who have little sense of their own position but every sense of what they perceive to be their worth and their station and, above all else, what they deserve.

There is more to come on this topic. I just need to sort of the thoughts for myself.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. I keep getting the same subjects over and again. It changes year to year but these subjects pop up in every class, though the students are different ages and academic levels. I give students the option to choose their own topics, so it isn’t as if I am determining these choices myself.
2. Rest In Peace, Eddie Zuleger. My former colleague was murdered last night in his home by his own son. The story continues to develop, but I don’t want to remember him by his death. I want to remember him as a wonderful teacher and a father who looked out for his family above all else–even up to the last breath.
3. Gonna play some flag football this Sunday. Hope I don’t die from being so damn out of shape.

Why do we in the modern world tend to believe in one God vs. Many? Imagine, if you will, that Gods represent the psychological embodiment of human desire. We are creatures of craving and when we cannot have what we want we look towards something that embodies what we want. In centuries past we split those desires amongst a pantheon, giving a name to each embodiment of desire. This was a practical maneuver, allowing individuals to focus on their desires in a limited manner. This allowed for differentiation and created a culture that allowed individuality to focus.

Modern times are built on the back of the Crusades and on the death of polytheistic beliefs. Where there were many Gods there remains only one, the ‘last man standing’ in an ocean of twinkling stars. I posit that our creativity and individuality is, in a sense, muted by monotheism.

Of course, we are not only muted by the lock-step locked down belief systems that dominate the modern world, but by access to a ton of media that only serves to further our natural confirmation bias. We find the news that confirms what we think we know, just like we know the one God is absolutely for us and about us and always on our side.

Read the signs, I bet they’ll tell you I am right on this one.