Share Four Somethings

Linking up late with Jenn for Share Four Somethings and Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday.

Sharing some things we loved, some things we learned, some things that went well, some things we let go of:

Things loved:

I just found out that we have a SNOW DAY and no school today so that is a recent edition things loved! We had snow in the forecast and indeed received snow last night and into the morning. I made a list of the things I would do if I could stay home today and it looks like I´m going to be able to do those things. And when the roads clear off (sometime this afternoon), I will be able to run errands that I was going to have to squeeze in after school. 

Sights and sounds of the season:

All the Christmas things from decor to clothes to accessories. It´s a short time of the year and a great one! Yes, a part of it is commercial and entails buying lots of things the importance of which is NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. But it´s also a season of reflection of memories past and a time to make new memories with loved ones. For those of us who celebrate the birth of Jesus, it´s a time of utmost thankfulness for Jesus and for what his birth (and death for our sins) means for mankind.

It´s December now- the calendar coincides with my decor :).

 

 

Something I learned:

Something about me- I´m smart enough to know that I´m often not the smartest person in the room. But I´m smart enough to appreciate those who have a high intellect and who can articulate their thoughts with prose that is easy and enjoyable to read. And if the reading is a persuasive piece, I appreciate sound reasoning that is presented clearly (ie, I can follow it!) 

I recently read a great article by a man named Ralph Gaebler, a retired associate librarian emeritus at Indiana University. He´s an intellectual and a good writer, having published a number of academic articles, book reviews and books. 

The article that I read from the Imaginative Conservative that he wrote offered a great intellectual argument against one of the more pervasive cultural  beliefs by many and that is the concept of infinitude and specifically how that applies to some salient cultural issues. His writing is so good that I’m not going to attempt to summarize, rather quote directly from him.

I´m quoting from the aforementioned article:

¨...Our cultural understanding of the concept of infinitude is incomplete, or corrupt, because it is no longer limited or constrained by any meaningful coordinate concept of finitude. It has therefore become a free radical careening through our corporate blood stream, causing untold damage to the body politic and resulting in a kind of soul sickness in individuals.

As a cultural value, infinitude makes two distinct claims, one allegedly factual and one ethical. First, it claims that there are few limits, physical or otherwise, on individual self actualization. For example, if one who was born a biological male chooses to be a female (or vice versa), there is no reason why he or she cannot do so. ...Gender theory has invented has invented a distinction between biological sex and gender. This is invention is intended to separate identity from biology, thus allowing individuals to simply ignore their actual biological sex, which is a physical, objective reality, but purportedly not one that is significant in the formation of identity. Rejecting any such limitation on identity formation, gender theory thus opens a whole new world of self actualization in which one can choose either gender, both genders, all genders or no gender. One becomes completely self constitutive. The fact that no physical or other alteration in one´s body morphology or personal identity can alter the chromosomal makeup of each of the trillions of human cells in one´s body is simply irrelevant, a fact conveniently elided into non-existence.

...There are numerous problems that arise from this view of unencumbered freedom. First it is incoherent and inherently self contradictory. Consider this simple vignette. When I volunteered at a free trade gift shop, I was asked to wear a name tag indicating my ¨preferred pronouns,¨ in order to demonstrate, sensitivity towards ¨the truth¨ of those who chose not to identify their gender with their biological sex. However, this ignored ¨my truth¨ which is that biological sex and gender are synonymous, and that people cannot simply change who they are. The directive to wear a pronoun defining name tag implies that I have consciously chosen the pronouns it announces, when in fact I deny that possibility. It is simply impossible to demonstrate sensitivity to the inherent integrity of every individual´s ¨truth¨ when individuals are free to invent any truth they choose, leading to inevitable conflicts between such truths. The inability of the culture of infinitude to resolve these conflicts leads it ironically towards intellectual coercion, as at the free trade gift shop, and on a large scale even to totalitarianism in the name of freedom.

...The biggest problem with the culture of infinitude is that it erases any meaningful concept of the individual at all. How can there be a meaningful definition of the individual if there is no concept of the individual as a particular, embodied person with inherent capabilities and limitations, embedded in a particular context? Fixed, objective limitations are essential to the very notions of personhood and individuality. 

...The intellectual  bankruptcy of the culture of infinitude is embedded in the fact that it is ideologically driven, rather than philosophically or religiously anchored... why does contemporary ¨woke¨ ideology insist that sexual orientation is fixed and immutable, despite lack of any scientific evidence or genetic causation, but gender is fluid and a matter of personal choice, despite the obvious physiological fact of biological sex? This contradiction is required by ideological commitments to both the LGBT and ¨trans¨ communities. Ideologues want to endorse freedom to choose gender. But at the same time they do not wish to acknowledge that sexual orientation could be a matter of choice in order to avoid moral judgement of orientation, even though denying a biological basis to sexual orientation does not necessarily imply that it is a matter of choice, and despite the fact that the possibility that it is a matter of choice does not entail moral judgement.  Be that as it may, the vicissitudes of their ideological agenda leads to contradiction.

...The culture of infinitude is derived from an unconstrained cultural libertarianism that recognizes no principled limits on the scope of individual self-creation. Thus, individualism has increasingly become a form of self-valorizing, narcissistic subjectivity masquerading as ¨authenticity,¨ in which, from a religious standpoint, the subject substitutes himself or herself for God at the center of the universe. At the same time, the culture of post- modernism has promoted the idea that there is no objective truth, only politically and culturally motivated ideology.¨

I´ve quoted a lot and could have continued but hopefully the point of the article is somewhat obvious from what I´ve included here. (And by all means, please read the article that I linked to read it in its entirety.) I´m not an intellect but I love to read well written articles that touch on philosophy as it intersects with the culture. I know I couldn´t articulate anything close to what the author did here... I enjoyed reading and learning from the author’s succinct writing and sound logic. 

Some things that went well:

Entertaining a couple of times in November- I wasn´t too worried that this wouldn´t go well. Getting together with friends is always a good time and neither house nor food need to be (or ever are...) perfect. When you´re surrounded by people you like and care about (and vice versa) perfection or anything close to it is not necessary. Though having two adorably decorated dining tables with an almost absurd amount of matching pieces does not hurt at all!!

Selecting an Airbnb in Gatlinburg- again, I wasn´t too worried about this. If you´re willing to spend a certain amount of money and read a lot of the reviews left by those who´ve stayed at a place, I feel like you can be fairly certain the place you´ve selected is going to be fine. I checked out and considered SO MANY PLACES in the Gatlinburg area and feel like I made a good selection. We loved our cozy cabin in the mountains. 

Some things we let go of:

Free time- I still have some of it but much less. Whyyyyyy did I agree to a long term sub job? Thankfully the job itself is going shockingly well. It´s the having to be at school for an entire school day that is a little less than ideal. And then having to do it the next day... and the next. Again, I know that going to work day in and day out is normal. But when you´re not used to it, it´s a big change!