A lot of things in human souls are disordered. Up to this point in the story, it doesn’t matter why this is so -- whether because of original sin or because we are still half-ape. Either way, we are pretty badly messed up. The most conspicuous symptom is that we desire all sorts of things that aren’t good for us to desire.
You have probably heard popular mottoes like “Feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are” and “I can’t help how I feel.”
Client to counselor: “You don’t know the first thing about being OCD. You can’t even get the letters in the right alphabetical order.”
After I gave a talk about natural law and marriage recently, a young man in the audience remarked “That doesn’t sound like natural law.” I asked, “Why not?” He answered, "It seems so existential."
Three things emerged from our conversation:
1. He was complimenting, not criticizing.
2. He wasn’t referring to existentialism.
A few grad students deal with pressure by not doing their work, but far more deal with it by working constantly, denying themselves rest or play. Even if they become ill they keep working, which not only makes their work bad, but makes their illnesses last longer.
Yes, there are still exhilarating moments in teaching.
This week I gave students my personal end of the semester questionaire. It includes the query, “Courses like this are supposed to stretch you, so what would you say is the biggest way that you’ve been stretched?”
As you might imagine, some of the replies were encouraging, others weren’t.
We laugh at all sorts of things besides jokes. The most popular explanation is that laughter arises from the perception of incongruity. Maybe so, but I think there is more to be said.
