Teaching Aristotle

I am having my students read Aristotle's "Doctrine of the Mean" this week. We will discuss it tomorrow. He raises many questions for consideration such as: What is man's highest good? Why does happiness not consist simply of pleasure, honor or wealth?Can we be virtuous by nature, or do we form virtues from our habits? Why is virtue a state of character and not a matter of having certain feelings?

I think my students are ready to engage with these questions, at least I hope they are!

We read Plato's "The Cave" last week and had a great discussion as a class. I'm not teaching philosophy...just exposing my students to some of the greatest literature of all time.

Masters in Nursing

I have decided to pursue a Masters in Nursing because I would like to contribute to the field of nursing as a Nurse Educator. I believe that I have valuable and varied experiences in nursing, along with teaching experience. I want to add to my knowledge base, and then give back to the nursing profession by teaching future nursing students.

I feel drawn back to the field of nursing because of the values that are inherent to nursing. I also see myself as a life-long learner, and I believe that my roots are in the field of nursing. I have reflected often on why I chose nursing as a major when I was in high school, and what comes back to me is the opportunity to help people during a crisis, or life-changing event.

I would also like to unite my passion for teaching with my passion for nursing. Teaching English for the past three years has been challenging and rewarding on many levels. Teaching requires versatility, as discussions in the classroom often elicit student interaction that is spontaneous. My interactions with many people in my career as a nurse has helped me to be flexible and understanding with people, which has helped me to be a better teacher.

Nursing is an area that encompasses all of the pivotal life experiences, and the care given by nurses can have such lasting effects on people, families and society. I would like to be part of this ever-expanding circle of caring, and teach future nurses the critical importance of knowledge combined with the ability to engage with people on a personal level to give optimum care.

Thoughts as Good Friday approaches...

As a child, I remember thinking that Good Friday was a very sad time. We had to be quiet between twelve and three p.m., as we were told that Jesus suffered and died on the cross during those hours of the day. I never remember going to any Good Friday services, which might have helped me to make more meaning of the day.

As an adult, I have a more hopeful perspective about the suffering that Jesus did for all of our sins. The enduring love that He exemplified through suffering and dying on the cross speaks volumes to me about what love entails and requires of each of us. To truly love is the ultimate sacrifice. Love perfects the soul as nothing else can do. Love challenges and expands our capacity to give selflessly. Currently I am reading a beautifully written book that has given me fruitful insights into love and its intimate link to sacrifice. The book is titled A Grief Unveiled: One Father's Journey Through The Death Of A Child by Gregory Floyd. I highly recommend this book!

Peter Kreeft puts it well when he states "What happened on the Cross is no freak accident, no exception, but the universal principle of what love does. love delivers the beloved from evil by taking it upon itself and soaking it up, like a blotter" (Fundamentals of the Faith pg 236).

Virtue

(These thoughts are taken from Fr. James B. Buckley, F.S.S.P.-Director of Spirituality, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary)

Virtue, says Aristotle, is that which makes its possessor good and his work good likewise. To obtain natural happiness, this wisest of the Greek philosophers, observed that the four cardinal or moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) were absolutely necessary.

These virtues, which are habits regulating man's behavior, can only be acquired by repeated actions.

Spring Cleaning

The season of spring, with its reminders of new life all around us in nature, puts me in the mood of reflection. This reality of new beginnings, coupled with spending a few days sifting through the mementos accumulated over thirty years of marriage, and raising eight children puts me in a reflective mood. you begin to see the warp and woof of your life; a tapestry or collage of family, friends, places and events. these are the touch points of my life, but by no means all-inclusive. yet, they serve as a reminder that I am getting older, and also bring to mind all the gifts that God has so richly blessed me and our family with over the years.

Sifting through memory lane can be a daunting task. I need to brace myself for the onslaught of thoughts and feelings that are tied to each picture, or artifact. Pouring through photographs that are sequestered into shoe boxes in no particular order, adds to the roller-coaster of feelings that I experience. As I gaze at a photo taken in the early morning, I see myself twenty-five years ago, holding newborn Matthew, with sobbing Kerry 9age 4) and Brian (age 17 months). I don't know what my husband Al was thinking when he snapped this, but I am grateful to be reminded of the controlled chaos that a newborn brings to the family dynamic. from here I come across numerous high school graduation pictures, and these set me to marveling at the fast pace of time. I stumble across flocks of elementary school assignments and report cards, and I'm tempted to toss them, but something stays my hand. These aren't trash, I tell myself, rather they are irreplaceable pieces of lived experience. I come across similar mementos from my own parochial schooldays. Why is it that even after forty-five years, photos of classmates stimulate the immediate recall of names?

I began this spring cleaning to throw things away, but I'm finding that to be difficult, because attached to each card, picture or report card is a memory. These "things" are the tangible reality of a life well lived. I am reminded of Anne Lamott's words from her book Bird by Bird, "clutter is wonderfully fertile ground-you can still discover new treasures under all those piles" (28). I've decided that I need more file cabinets and photo albums to organize these memories.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month!

Check out Tri-Valley Haven's website. They provide counseling and supprt services for women and families in the Tri-Valley area. They also provide speakers on a range of important issues related to sexual assault.

A Refutation of Moral Relativism

(This text is taken from a blog by Peter Kreeft- professor of Philosophy at Boston College)

A good society is one that makes it easy for you to be good. Correlatively, a free society is one that makes it easy to be free. To be free, and to live freely, is to live spiritually, because only spirit is free-matter is not. To live spiritually is to live morally. The two essential properties of spirit that distinguish it from matter are intellect and will-the capacity for knowledge and moral choice. The ideals of truth and goodness.

The most radical threat to living morally today is the loss of moral principles.

Principles mean moral absolutes. Unchanging rocks beneath the changing waves of feelings and practices. Moral relativism is a philosophy that denies moral absolutes.

How important is this issue? After all, it's just a philosophy, and philosophy is just ideas. But ideas have consequences. Sometimes these consequences are as momentous as a holocaust, or a Hiroshima. Sometimes even more momentous. Philosophy is just thought, but sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. This is just as true for societies as it is for individuals.

How important is the issue? The issue of moral relativism is merely the single most important issue of our age, for no society in all of human history has ever survived without rejecting the philosophy of moral relativism.

Moral relativism usually includes three claims: That morality is first of all changeable; secondly, subjective; and third, individual. Moral absolutism claims that there are moral principles that are unchangeable, objective, and universal.

For more on this topic, see the book A Refutation of Moral Relativism.