Individual presentations Day 1

The first day of individual presentations was wonderful! It is so interesting to listen because it is unlike the presentation of any other term paper. These are so much more personal and unique to that individual. Kevin Luby talked about inscape of course and achieving "mental clarity"...I don't quite know if he even knows what that is. I loved that he addressed the idea that silly experiences allow you to upgrade to all new experiences on a completely different level and without those you wouldn't reach that level. He raised the bar for the following presentations. Abby also did a wonderful job talking about memory and experience. We are living in a world of fragmented moments as she described it...which seems accurate to me! I almost laughed when she was talking about eternal truth because I didn't really stop to think about what it really is! Well...there is not really a right answer is there? We all have our own eternal truth. Though it could be said that the divine is the soul. I like that. Live, Die, Choose- well said Joan. I greatly appreciated Joan's way of breaking down life into stages: the first 20 years a hormonal mess, the 50 after that we live and the last 10 years we are losing our minds. That's 80 years of rich, unique experiences. The sacred and the sacrifice are the same- the more you give up the more sacred you become. Katie's presentation was also wonderful of course, raising the bar once again...her presentation was very personal and i know she put a lot of time and effort into it. "if you didn't have bad luck, you'd have no luck at all"...good advice but isn't there such a thing as good luck? Perhaps luck is luck. Ronald ended the class with a presentation on the four quartets which of course I was excited by. He talked about the five chinese elements (wood, earth, fire, water, and metal) and how they all connect. I thought it was brilliant that he changed the order of the elements though and I wondered to myself...had he kept the elements in the same order, would his paper have the same conclusion? Just a thought...He also talked about the phases being circular just as Eliot describes life as circular in a way. Learn to love and you will love to learn.

Tres bien tout le monde!