Thursday Examen
Opening Words to Ponder . . .
This is not a matter of virtue–it’s a matter of my choosign to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hardwired default setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being, quote, “well-adjusted,” which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.
Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education, at least in my own case, is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on in front of me. Instead of paying attention to what’s going on inside of me.
“Learning how to think” really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.(1)
Reflecting – spend some time letting images, faces, and relationships, whatever, wash around your mind’s eye as you ponder the questions.
For what moments am I most grateful this week?
For what moments am I least grateful this week?
When did I give and receive the most love this week?
When did I give and receive the least love this week?
When did I feel most alive this week?
When did I feel life draining out of me this week?
When have I had the greatest sense of belonging to myself, to others, and to God?
Closing Music to Ponder . . .
“Dust in the Wind”
Kansas, “Point of No Return,” 1977.
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Note
1. David Foster Wallace, This is Water, Little Brown and Company, 2009, pp. 44-53