Being! Or Nothingness

Are you serious about that question?

Today this question becomes the provocation that begins everything.  A few classes ago I asked my students "What can we be certain of?"  True to the nihilistic culture I began to cast doubt on my students certainty about everything that they said they were certain of.  That they exist, that they can really love, that the things in front of them are really there ... all of this is suspect in modern culture.  The problem of modern philosophy mixed with post-modern philosophy has created a world in which not only is reason suspect, but reality is suspect.  In the absurdity of casting everything into doubt I asked my students . . . "What can you be certain of?  Because if you can't be certain of something, how can you be certain of Christ?"

And so we took the long trek back to reality.  To take reality as the starting point because to doubt reality is the most absurd suggestion to a 15 year old kid.  And so, I suggested we begin with reality and move from there.

One student was particularly provoked by this discussion and text messaged me with the statement "I can be certain that I am because I think."  Cogito ergo sum.  I suggested that sum ergo cogito was a more reasonable position and thus the provocation was exacerbated.  Today he came to me after school trying to defend his position.  I guess I could have engaged him in it, it's always fun, but I felt something more serious provoking me:  What does this kid really want to know?

So I said to him, "Are you serious about that question?  If you are then you have some work to do, you have some thinking to do.  If you're not, then don't waste my time."  Tonight he messaged me again.  He says he is serious about the question and wants to read what I might suggest.  The easy out.  Because any book can be disputed and disengaged and made irrelevant.  But I'm not that easily won out.  Instead of suggesting a book I suggested that he begin to read a book with me, once a week.  That we begin to read something together so that we can verify if we can have certainty about something.  He said "Alright, sound good."

And in this way, School of Community is born in my school.  I will suggest that we read together "The Journey to Truth is an Experience," by Luigi Giussani.  That we read it once a week.  That we discuss it and try to understand it together.  Sure, he can read a book on his own.  He could read Heidegger or Husserl or Sartre, Thomas Aquinas or Augustine or Maritain, any of these would help him begin down a path to think about this question of "What can I know with certainty?" but the only thing in my experience that has really helped with this question is the companionship of those who ask my questions with me.

Since I'm serious about this question, I can only propose one thing.  I can only propose myself.  Because the one who is the meaning of reality, the one who is the only answer to the question of man is Christ.  And this man has chosen me to be this proposal, proving once again for the umpteenth time . . . Jesus has no taste in friends.

Happy Birthday Steve...

    Today is Steve's birthday, and he's turning 29. This is his birthday message, but instead of pulling the most depressing quotes from wacko philosophers, I'm going to tell a simple experience of why Steve is the figure he is to me.

    Today Steve, me and several other friends had lunch with Msgr. Albacete after he joined the CL Adult Community for their beginning day. Monsignor is incredible; after knowing me two hours and giving me my logos ( the reason for my existence, which is to carry his bag) he invites me to eat with him and the people that he had known before for God knows how long. It was just a fantastic gratuitous gift, one that I had no conception of whatsoever and really drove home the point of "encounter", or that unexpected meeting with Christ.

    But after the dinner, driving home from a football game we attended afterwards, it became so clear to me why I love Steve so much. It is simply because he loves me, my heart and my happiness, more than I ever will. I have no choice but to follow that and love him back. He was talking on the phone with a friend from New York who had called to give birthday salutations, and he was saying how beautiful the day went and how happy he was that I began the relationship with Msgr. Albacete. On his own brithday, the thing that  made him so happy (I think) was the fact that I was happy. That is love.

So Happy Birthday, a million times over Steve. Its official; it's on the blog!

Violence in Finland

    Today, at a high school called Joleka in Finland, an 18 year old student opened fire on random people, taking a total of eight lives before taking his own. Before the rampage the boy posted videos on Youtube, announcing the terror he would unleash on his classmates, waving a .22 caliber pistol and wearing a shirt that read Humanity is Overrated. Flags fly halfway all over Finland, and people throughout Finland are attending payer services and silence for the victims of the murder.

    These acts of shocking violence and using the Internet to publicize them has become a fashion, albeit a disturbing one. We all remember the Virgina Tech massacre and the several smaller incidents following.  But as I flipped through the paper on my Metro ride, it wasn't just the school shooting that seized my attention. There were pictures and articles to see in the newspaper that reported acts of violence from all over the world. Riot police preparing for protests in Tbilisi, Georgia; protester-police battles in Islamabad, gunmen in Caracas, Venezula injure 8 students at a March to protest President Hugo Chavez, and it could go on and on.

    On November 8,1987 in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland an bomb exploded at a ceremony honoring war casualties, killing 11 people and leaving many more injured. Bono, the lead singer of U2, dedicated the song "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" to the dead at a concert on that exact same day. 20 years later, we are still singing the same song that says "How long? How long must we sing this song?" And my question is exactly that.

Beginning Again (Hopefully)

"The only joy in the world is to begin. It is beautiful to live because to live is to begin, always, and every instant."
-Cesare Pavese

I love that line. I wish it to be my life, in every moment, every second. After screwing up alot of things, I can come back to that. And with the certainty of being loved, I begin again.

If you were wondering about my two week absence, then the above has something to do with it. When I am not living, there is nothing to post on the blog. There is nothing of value. But this is a post, and it's a little sign that I am beginning my life anew.