Shameless Plug for World Cancer Day

            Today is World Cancer Day. Yesterday our chapter of National Honor Society that I co-sponsor began its campaign to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Tampa Bay. Our goal this year is raise $5,000 to support local children who are afflicted with blood cancers, diseases which have a high curability rate in the young.

            Today I am shamelessly asking you to support us in our efforts. Not only with a pledge of support, but in assisting with spreading the word. Cancer is so prevalent in developed nations that I doubt hardly anyone who reads this doesn’t have their own cancer story, whether from battling it themselves or helping other family members cope with the disease during treatment.

            If you can support our cause monetarily, please do so. If you are reading this far away and don’t necessarily feel a connection to local children here in the Tampa Bay region, then please consider making a donation to your local chapter. If money is not an option, you could always volunteer your time at facilities that are local to you or simply spread awareness by passing this message along or creating your own.

            All of this has had my mind on charity the last few days. What does it mean to be charitable? Charity by definition has to do with offering financial assistance to those who are in need, but how do we prioritize “who” is in need? Does a poor family with a child who has cancer need money more than a friend who wants to borrow a dollar to buy chips? How much can we afford to give away? What carries weight in such a calculus?

Please consider making a donation

 Click here to donate to LLS of Tampa Bay

Ponder This - 4

Ponder This - 3

Soldiers of South Sudan. What questions come to mind? Please post below.

Success

            Today I was back out in the courtyard, strolling through the sunshine and brisk air. The word I had on my board was SUCCESS along with a few associated questions soliciting students to tell me their general ideas/definitions of success and how we can recognize it in ourselves and others. The response was overwhelming.

           

            The first few students to say anything to me mentioned being millionaires (shocking). I turned it around on them by asking is it okay to be a millionaire no matter how you got the money? They immediately recognized the difference between starting your own small business and living a life of crime. Then they went on to mention how it would be important to raise a family, live a good life, get an education, et cetera.

           

            The best reaction I had today started with one student. He told me—of course—that he had to have: 1) a huge mansion; 2) be a billionaire (I guess millionaire is not enough for him); 3) be famous; 4) have a model wife. I would have pressed him to explain what he meant by “model,” but I figured he meant one who displays the latest fashions rather than some notion of perfection insofar as who or what a wife is supposed to be. After he loudly proclaimed these to practically everyone within earshot, I asked him where he got such notions and was about to ask if reality television and American popular culture have distorted his (or our) views of success before his friends all started chiming in. They told him that that is not the only form of success; they mentioned accomplishing personal goals and dreams, living to the best of one’s abilities, and exceeding the expectations of ourselves and others. By the time I left, 5 or 6 students were discussing success with each other. And that certainly made today a success for me.

            How about you? How would you define success? Are there certain universal forms of success that people might agree upon regardless of culture and context? Why or why not? How do you recognize success in yourself? In others? Do you try to promote success by the way you live? Why is success important? Do we have to be successful at everything, or is it okay to succeed in only certain endeavors?

Please leave your comments and questions for others.

Got Wisdom?

            Though the English language only has a few vestiges of gender left in its lexicon, most languages spoken today still use gender as an effective way to communicate the undercurrent of a word’s meaning. For the last several days, I’ve been thinking about the word “wisdom” and what it means to be wise. I think I have grown wiser over the years, especially as I close in on 40, but I know I have so much more to learn and experience before I would consider myself wise. And if our hero Socrates is any model for this, we would do ourselves a service by even doubting what wisdom we claim to have.

            The Greek word for wisdom that is at the root of the word philosophy is Sophia. It’s interesting to me that the word is feminine because it intimates tenderness, a supple nature that is yielding when it needs to be and firm only when absolutely necessary (like all good mothers are). More importantly, this reveals what I think the heart of wisdom is—our collected experiences being brought to bear on a particular situation in a particular moment. Wisdom does not have a one-size-fits-all solution to any challenge; instead, it is a skill that is honed over time if we are willing to learn from our failures and mistakes as human beings.

            Part of what brought on this reflection during the last few days is due to the book I am reading, Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing by Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe. They make a clear case for the need for cultivating wisdom in everyday living, especially in a society that prizes rules and incentives—two forces that essentially erode that wisdom (or at least its application). What’s most important about this book, though, is that the authors illustrate time and again how wisdom is not only necessary but universal. It is a skill that can be developed just like any other and, most notably, does not require super-human intelligence to be wielded.

            What is wisdom to you? How would you define it? Do you consider yourself a wise person? Why or why not? If so, how did you become so? Are there better ways of cultivating it than others? If not, why do you feel that is? Surely you must have some wisdom about some aspect of life, correct? How can we all encourage the use of wisdom in our daily living and the lives of others?

P.S. - If you love TED Talks as much as I do, check out Barry Schwartz's lament on the loss of wisdom in our society. It's quite good and full of useful anecdotes that demonstrate that anyone can be a wise person. I'm about halfway through the book, which is chock full of even more of these types of examples.

 

For Your Consideration - 2

            Here is this week’s “For Your Consideration” video. Like last week, it is another excellent TED Talk, though this one deals with another topic. Whether you realize it or not, Google (along with just about every other major internet entity) tailors your experience of the web through the use of algorithms. I had known this for some time, but I never realized the extent to which it was being used by other companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, etc.

            While this might not seem like such a problem, it has undoubtedly contributed to the radical political polarization we have seen here in the United States over the last decade or so. This also affects us in other potentially detrimental ways such as inhibiting the open-mindedness that one must cultivate as a philosopher. To be able to ask important questions is contingent upon being exposed to wide and diverse views, even those diametrically opposed to your own personal convictions. In order to dialogue with others—especially those with whom we disagree about our opinions—we must have the access to their perspective, to their worldview. But if we are being limited in that exposure, does it not stifle us and the wisdom we would potentially accrue?

            How can we work around these “filter bubbles”? How can we effectively seek out information that broadens the horizons of our inquiry? How can we help the algorithms better serve our needs while still allowing them to function properly and well? Why is this crucial for progress in a representative democracy such as ours, especially one that has been plagued with dysfunction and ideological gridlock over the last decade?

            As always, please post your thoughts, comments, and questions below.

Ponder This - 2

            Here is this week’s “Ponder This” picture. As I mentioned last week, these are meant to be exercises in free-flowing philosophical thinking. Though eventually I will post these with no comments or questions, I will share with you what this picture made me think about.

            What does it mean to sacrifice? Is this mother giving her child what little she has to help sustain the child’s life? Why should anyone go hungry in a world where there is a surplus of food? How can developed nations better help developing ones in terms of alleviating hunger? Are we doing enough to aid others in our own lives, in our own communities? How can famine be prevented? Why can we not prevent it with the advancements we have made technologically? We waste nearly 50% of the food produced in the United States; how can we do so knowing that it could be used to offset hunger in other places around the globe? What can I do today to reduce anyone’s suffering, even if it is not from hunger?

            Please share your questions and comments below for others.