An Educated Mind

"I'm taking an awesome elective university class this semester," said no one ever.

I think it's pretty common knowledge that most GNED or elective university classes are a giant waste of time.  Without being required to study a random astronomy class to satisfy some random "cluster," the university experience would be a lot more efficient.  Not to mention cheaper.  If I were to sit down and contemplate the $600 I paid to play charades and make junior high style collages in my "Intro to the Theatre" class, I might be a little disgruntled.  Oh the things you do to get three more credits and become "well rounded."

However, this year is proving to be a little different.  I'm still in an elective that I find retarded (Intro to Psychology - my prof prefers showing us outdated psych movies from the 1970s rather than actually lecturing us) however, I'm also in an elective that I actually... dare I say... love?

Okay fine, I'll say it, just as soon as I push the nerdy glasses back up my nose.  I love this elective class I'm in.  It's called "Texts & Ideas."  Essentially, we study well known texts and apply the ideas of each author in trying to discover what it means to "live the good life."  I know, fascinating right?  These are the books we've had to read so far:

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For the first time in my university career, I feel like I'm learning something that is going to have an impact on my entire life, not just some distant and unknown job.  Perhaps on a later day I'll share what each book has to say in regards to living the good life.  As for this post, I want to share one of my own discoveries since beginning this class.

On the first day of class we did all the typical first day of class things.  We looked over the course outline, we found out what our assignments would be like, and discovered what texts we would need to buy.  Then our prof began to speak about what each of us would intrinsically need to make this course work: an open-mind.  Since we would be studying a very WIDE spectrum of ideas, ranging from Greek philosophy, Christianity, to Hinduism, it was going to be imperative for each of us to open our minds up in order to get the most out of this class.  To get this message across, she shared what is now my new favourite quote from Aristotle: "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."  This sounded easy enough, I've always considered myself to be well educated.  

Having been raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in a very small "Mormon" town, it oftentimes felt like there was only one right way to live and be happy: "To be in the world, but not of the world."  Perhaps it was just me, but the interpretation I got from this was to stay the heck away from anything else the world had to offer if it wasn't a part of, or entirely in line with, Mormonism.  In retrospect, I do not regret growing up this way.  However now, since beginning this splendid elective, I'm beginning to realized how much "good" the world has to offer.  After leaving each class, I find myself wishing to implement parts of the Greek philosophies of Aristotle into my life. I find myself wishing to emulate and cultivate the same sort of love and relationship the Catholic Bishop Augustine had for his Lord and Saviour.  And I find myself desiring to view each moment of my life as utterly important as Arjuna does in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.  Although each of these philosophies and religions are not Mormonism, they each still have their own good, dare I say even their own divine good.

Although I may hate taking these elective classes and jumping through these university hoops, I'm beginning to realize that one of the most important things I'm learning is how to think critically, how to reason, and how to make applications between seemingly unrelated topics.  Since starting out on the journey of entertaining ideas and opening my mind, I've been able to make new friends I probably never would have.  I've been able to make connections between my own religion to other religions and ways of thinking.  And best of all, I feel like I'm more able to determine when something outside of my own religion or comfort zone is "good."  Because the world has so much good to offer.