All Things considered...

[Christopher Harris]

Peace. I'll try to be brief but its not likely. I'm writing this in hopes that it is the last time I speak about it in this or any other course. When it comes to my personal perspective on human life, all life, it all begins and ends with not the science of astronomy and cosmology, which had been and remains my first and deepest passion as a human, but the actual presence of the cosmos. Because there is a difference between what one sees and what actually is. And that is a summary for my whole viewpoint, since I was a child until this very moment, I'm more concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is. 

And this presence of glaxies and stars and planets and species consumed me so much that , as I mentioned in my other class, that I speak about human beings like I'm not one because that's how I grew up viewing the species...as just another species here on this dynamic planet, that harbors a tremendous amount of other species and life forms. And I've always had this sense of looking down on the planet from the perspective of space. That, I feel, is the main reason why I'm feel so connected to other life forms, and it is also the reason why I can advocate immensely for the human species, but also why I can be critical of it, to the point where part of me would support an extinction level event happening to remove the human species from this planet. 

I say this because I feel that this planet is more important to the solar system then the human species is, and because as a collective, unfortunately the human species is doing more to hurt and destroy the life on this planet than they are doing to help it. And it's only a matter of time before the tipping point arrives and there is no more need for talk.

That is what I meant when I said I am going to struggle, this is what i was speaking about when I had a very deep crisis about why am I still in school during my first semester in the program. Because I truly feel that we, as a collective of humans, need to be doing a whole lot more acting than talking, and the bulk of the responsibility lies with these institutions of higher learning, the educators within them, and the student populations across the world. I feel this way because in my humble opinion these institutions and these communities are the last bastion of hope for the human species to be able to live, learn, work, and play together as a multicultural community, bringing people together from backgrounds and environments that would have never ever interacted with each other, let alone become friends, let alone fall in love, let alone create something meaningful and substantial to contribute to the life of this planet and to the life on this planet. 

Also, I truly feel these schools and the people within them, as a collective, is the last unifying institution of trust remaining in society. The church, politics, entertainment, it's like very few has any faith or trust in the information and the agenda coming from these groups of people. But if a true, united movement coming from a contingent of educators and students were to call for significant change in the way we live on this planet, I feel that would gain some momentum.

And that is where all this is coming from and where I will end it. Beyond my own individual characteristics, flaws, traits, idiosyncrasies....I've always been about the betterment and advancement of not just the human condition, but the condition of all life, including this planet, which I feel is a living, breathing biological organism that harbors many other organisms, just like the human body can be home for many other living organisms like parasites, and viruses. And, just like it was quoted in the movie, The Matrix, that is what the human species is currently behaving like on this planet, and that is a virus. The overwhelming majority move from place to place, growing and consuming all of the resources without putting anything back, then when all is gone, they move on and do it somewhere else. The only cynical difference between humans and other viruses as we know them, humans do it for industry, for gain, for greed, not to sustain life but to prop oneself or one group up as conquers with a destructive god-complex.

And that is my struggle. With sitting in these classes, with reading this information in these classes. It's like, how is this bettering the situation going on in and around this planet? How is this contributing? What meaning is this bringing? What is the purpose? And that is why a few of the good people were surprised and happy to see me still in school after I mentioned this, not as clear and concise as this because I was frustrated with pressure, in my first class. Because I feel as if I'm spinning my wheels, wasting valuable time, in a place that..........not getting too deep into it, but I feel, as others do, is a place that was designed to do just that. To keep our brightest minds and most courageous hearts occupied in obedience. 

I'll end it here. Thank you if you took the time to read this. But as I told myself at the end of my first class in the program, this is not Chris Harris university and I don't want to spend anyone's time and money talking about the importance of working towards saving our lives because its not important!!! Lol :-)

But honestly, I AM a Spiritualist, and all that I have mentioned here is trumped by a Higher perspective that I take, that which has allowed me to stay in school, to be more peaceful and calm in the face of the deliberate destruction of the things I love, and to spin my wheels reading and doing work that I personally feel is meaningless and purposeless in my overall quest for discovering the Truth of All Things and assisting in the saving lives of species and Lifeforms. 

So, especially after writing this, I'm good again. It's just like my Grandma would say to us growing up, "If you see the need, the responsibility is yours." It's just that since I was a child I saw a need for global reformation of the way humans live on this planet, and I felt the responsibility was mine.

--
"Those who say it's impossible should not interfere with those of us who are doing it."

S. Hickman

[James T. Hansen]

Christopher:

Thank you for your very eloquent and thoughtful contribution to this discussion.  I appreciate your sharing your rich and interesting views with us as a group.  I certainly hope that you do not "end it here"!  I would really like to hear more about your position.  I think that your questions about academia - "how is this bettering the situation going on in and around this planet? How is this contributing? What meaning is this bringing? What is the purpose?" - are thoughtful and compelling.  Let's continue the conversation together...

Any comments on this week's readings about humanism?

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CNS 687 Fall 2013" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cns-687-fall-2...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cns-687-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cns-687-fall-2013.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Maria Mazurova]

Hey Chris,

Thank you for sharing, I do appreciate that you are still in the program. The first time I heard you open up in our Intro class, I wanted to talk to you more about what you said but I never did, I will now.  I too have many ideas such as the ones you have mentioned that I have wondered about and not many avenues of where to share or discuss them. Personally, for me, I’m not necessarily sure this class is that place either, so I remain full of personal reflections like these (and thus, appreciate your courage in sharing your viewpoints).

To reflect on some of what you have said that stuck out in my mind:

“I'm more concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is.” 

                -When you say this, I think about a person who was born blind. A blind person may say the world, it is a dark place. In their world, this may be completely true, the truest of truths for them. Then I think of a dog, and if it could speak, (and for these purposes I am assuming dogs really are colorblind and can only see in grey scale), a dog would tell me, the world is grey, and in the dogs world , that truth is the truest of truths. Finally, I think of myself. I am not colorblind as far as I know, and I can tell you green is green, and that is the truest of truths for me. However, when I say that, I am only saying it from the perspective that I can see a very limited slither of the actual color spectrum (at least so far discovered), and other beings can see more of it – such as snakes seeing infrared. To me, the “truth” is, green is green, and if I call green purple, people might tell me I’m colorblind, and if I say I see colors no one sees, people may tell me I’m hallucinating. The point it, “truth” is subjective, and I feel, as a human being, I have certain limits in my understanding of truth, therefore, if there was really a truth above all truths, maybe I could never truly know it from my limited perspective. I have come to accept that. There may be a truth, or there may not be, to me it is a matter of what personally fits for you, so that in a sense, becomes the only truth we can really consider truth (knowing it only really applies to our perspective).  The “problem” (though from the viewpoint of my current belief system – it’s not really a problem) that I have seen is when people are very determined to prove their truth to other people who supposedly see an inferior truth, this can become especially apparent in disagreements surrounding religion. So it’s hard for me to truly resonate with your quote about being concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is. Is that even a possibility? Because the second you are concerned with “what is” you are thinking about what something is (or at least I am).

“I say this because I feel that this planet is more important to the solar system then the human species is”

                -I get where you are coming from on this, even the mass extinction piece. But then I have to ask myself, what then? The earth is fascinating indeed, it has the capacity to recycle its outer shell completely, in turn eliminating all inhabitants. I’m not so worried about humans destroying the earth, it does a very good job regulating mankind in my opinion (not sure if you were there or recall, but an example I mentioned in our intro class is that ant colony regulation from the Planet Earth series where nature seemed to regulate infestations of only a particular type of ant out of dozens and created a spore to kill just the overpopulating type of ant, not the others). Also, if you look at it from the perspective of Mother Earth, it is a patient parent.

“we, as a collective of humans, need to be doing a whole lot more acting than talking”

                -I had these thoughts a few times myself. I see what you are saying. Today, I have to keep in mind, everyone learns and acts at their own pace, develops at their own level. It’s hard for me to say what one should and shouldn’t be doing, I guess I currently find myself in a more let the chips fall where they may mentality.

“betterment and advancement of not just the human condition, but the condition of all life”
                -Again here - it can be hard to say what is betterment and what is not, for me personally, I feel in order to be able to make those sorts of judgments, I would need to consider myself a person that knows best, or as you put it, destructive of not, but with a definite slice of “god-complex”.

 

The Matrix

                -Finally, The Matrix. A loaded movie, with many levels of depth. A personal favorite of mine from the movie is the sign the oracle has above a doorway going into her kitchen, the sign says “KNOW THYSELF”. I have returned to that quite a few times in my mind and in my life, those two words carry with them a lot of meaning.

 

To finish off, I truly feel that what you have shared has resonated with me at one point or another, perhaps some to this day. Today, I believe this plane of existence, is in some sense, a playground. We come here to play and learn, nothing is finite, and we truly are just learning. Therefore in my mind (at least for this given period of time), everything is broken down into lessons and learning experiences, and we have the opportunities to learn and grow everywhere we go and in everything we do.

And I will comment on the readings shortly....

Dr. Hansen, (assuming you have read down this much) is it common for this class to have students wondering and going into meanings systems, etc.? I got the feeling this type of class might head into discussions surrounding the meaning of life...Maybe it's every philosophically based class, I have never taken one however, so maybe that's just my stereotypical thinking.

[Jeanine Gruschow]

Chris,

Like Maria, I appreciate your thoughts.  Looking into the heavens and marveling about our very existence is fascinating.  How we perceive, experience, create truth, know ourselves, others, and the planet….our kindnesses or transgressions toward people, animals, or our amazing planet, is all fascinating.  I enjoy the intellectual jousting that these topics inspire.  Keep sharing!

Jeanine 

[James T. Hansen]

Maria and Jeanine:

Thank you for your thoughtful responses - Maria, to answer your question, I encourage students in this course to engage in their own wonderings, talk about their meaning systems, etc.  I'm not sure how common it is, but I am very pleased that it is happening with our class!

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

[Christopher Harris]

Thank you so much Dr. Hanson for your support and encouragement. I guess I said I would end it all here because I didn't want to steer away from the readings and topics of the class but I'm sure you won't let that happen. So thank you again. I rarely talk like this, to anyone, so to have you not only support me but encourage me to continue means more than I can say. I don't have a comment on the readings yet but I promise I will. Thanks again.

On Thursday, September 12, 2013, James T. Hansen wrote:

Christopher:

Thank you for your very eloquent and thoughtful contribution to this discussion.  I appreciate your sharing your rich and interesting views with us as a group.  I certainly hope that you do not "end it here"!  I would really like to hear more about your position.  I think that your questions about academia - "how is this bettering the situation going on in and around this planet? How is this contributing? What meaning is this bringing? What is the purpose?" - are thoughtful and compelling.  Let's continue the conversation together...

Any comments on this week's readings about humanism?

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Christopher Harris <ccha...@oakland.edu> wrote:

Peace. I'll try to be brief but its not likely. I'm writing this in hopes that it is the last time I speak about it in this or any other course. When it comes to my personal perspective on human life, all life, it all begins and ends with not the science of astronomy and cosmology, which had been and remains my first and deepest passion as a human, but the actual presence of the cosmos. Because there is a difference between what one sees and what actually is. And that is a summary for my whole viewpoint, since I was a child until this very moment, I'm more concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is. 

And this presence of glaxies and stars and planets and species consumed me so much that , as I mentioned in my other class, that I speak about human beings like I'm not one because that's how I grew up viewing the species...as just another species here on this dynamic planet, that harbors a tremendous amount of other species and life forms. And I've always had this sense of looking down on the planet from the perspective of space. That, I feel, is the main reason why I'm feel so connected to other life forms, and it is also the reason why I can advocate immensely for the human species, but also why I can be critical of it, to the point where part of me would support an extinction level event happening to remove the human species from this planet. 

I say this because I feel that this planet is more important to the solar system then the human species is, and because as a collective, unfortunately the human species is doing more to hurt and destroy the life on this planet than they are doing to help it. And it's only a matter of time before the tipping point arrives and there is no more need for talk.

That is what I meant when I said I am going to struggle, this is what i was speaking about when I had a very deep crisis about why am I still in school during my first semester in the program. Because I truly feel that we, as a collective of humans, need to be doing a whole lot more acting than talking, and the bulk of the responsibility lies with these institutions of higher learning, the educators within them, and the student populations across the world. I feel this way because in my humble opinion these institutions and these communities are the last bastion of hope for the human species to be able to live, learn, work, and play together as a multicultural community, bringing people together from backgrounds and environments that would have never ever interacted with each other, let alone become friends, let alone fall in love, let alone create something meaningful and substantial to contribute to the life of this planet and to the life on this planet. 

Also, I truly feel these schools and the people within them, as a collective, is the last unifying institution of trust remaining in society. The church, politics, entertainment, it's like very few has any faith or trust in the information and the agenda coming from these groups of people. But if a true, united movement coming from a contingent of educators and students were to call for significant change in the way we live on this planet, I feel that would gain some momentum.

And that is where all this is coming from and where I will end it. Beyond my own individual characteristics, flaws, traits, idiosyncrasies....I've always been about the betterment and advancement of not just the human condition, but the condition of all life, including this planet, which I feel is a living, breathing biological organism that harbors many other organisms, just like the human body can be home for many other living organisms like parasites, and viruses. And, just like it was quoted in the movie, The Matrix, that is what the human species is currently behaving like on this planet, and that is a virus. The overwhelming majority move from place to place, growing and consuming all of the resources without putting anything back, then when all is gone, they move on and do it somewhere else. The only cynica

--
"Those who say it's impossible should not interfere with those of us who are doing it."

S. Hickman

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CNS 687 Fall 2013" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cns-687-fall-2...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cns-687-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cns-687-fall-2013.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CNS 687 Fall 2013" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cns-687-fall-2...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cns-687-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cns-687-fall-2013.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Christopher Harris]

Peace Maria. Thank you for the tone and depth of your response. Yeah we have a lot in common as we discussed before, so I'll just thank you for sharing, and hope we can talk more about things like this when we both have the time. I especially thank you for your reminder and remembering the comments about the ants, yes I remember that vividly! But I would like to clarify a few things. 

I guess I should have been more clear when talking about what is v. what someone thinks is. First I completely agree about perspectives and truth being subjective, that's the way I answered Dr. Hanson's questions on truth. But regarding what is, I was speaking about presence v. interpretation. The actual existence of something v. the speaking ABOUT something.  For example speaking about the character and nature of what is commonly referred to as "God", this is what someone thinks about "God", even those that insists it came from Divine origins, you have to put a great deal of trust in them to believe that for one, more important to accept it and model your life and your viewpoint on that. Personally, I would much rather hear it from "God" ITSELF what ITS true nature is. Like i told my Grandma, who you know is a christian minister. I stopped going to church and believing in the bible because i was more concerned about seeking out the actual presence of "God", not what someone else has written or what someone else believes snd definitely not what someone else tells me I should believe about IT. 

So that is what I meant by that statement. Not completely disregarding what someone thinks, and not trying to say that what they think is wrong and what i think is right, I'm simply saying that if its not coming directly from the source, then it's what someone else thinks about it, the way someone else interprets it.  Proselytizing, or trying to convert people to my own belief has never been my thing and its another main reason I fell out with certain religious interpretations.

And while I understand your comment about humans not destroying the Earth, unfortunately i feel it's no longer the case. That is if its reality the number of nuclear weapons that are stockpiled around this planet. If such is the case, that kind of force that can be created if ALL of them happened to go off could disintegrate this relatively small planet. And the toxic waste that we generated could potentially alter the geological processes that the planet uses to regulate and regenerate itself, making dead zones that are inhabitable by life forms, like in the Ukraine and more recently in Japan. And if there is enough of it, the entire surface world of this planet could potentially be one big dead zone. 

As far as better I guess I just feel that we should take care of life and not stand idly by while an individual or a group of individuals are being killed, tortured, and deprived of what they need to live. Or by allowing species to be hunted into extinction for the illusion of profit. It's as simple as that. Ive just always been a protector. And I feel it would be better for laughing and loving and sharing as opposed to killing, cursing, and hoarding. Maybe I'm just a fool. 

But trust that I know that everyone is free by the freedom given to them by life to choose, that is why I am eagerly awaiting to hear the article Dr. Hanson assigned about the person who said we should not stop people from committing suicide. While I am in the process of organizing a suicide prevention event on campus with one of our fellow counseling trainees, I really await that viewpoint no matter how much I know I am personally going to disagree.

But I am in total agreement with what you are saying when you say....who's to say?That is why I continue to talk to myself about it and my own personal round table in my head!! (Dr.Hanson :-)  because there has never been anyone around me that talks like this, about this.

 I just go off of feeling, intuition. But however difficult, I try my best to practice what I've learned to be called Divine Apathy. Which is said to live under the knowing that, as you said, people are free to choose and believe as they please, and whatever the outcome, it will just be the outcome. And even trying to get people to live in an apparent utopia is still trying to control what people choose to do, the way people choose to live. It's like one show about gang life I was watching, when an old founder of a "legendary" gang got out of prison and was trying to "better" the community and reorganize his gang into a force to help not hurt. And one sincere, stoneface young street veteran surely said "F that and F him. I like things the way they are, don't try to come changing S around me." And I could just tell by the look in his eyes that he meant it. 

So. Again, to end it all here, simply because we need to stay with the reason and writings of this course, I will say that I am always careful to use what I learned in logic philosophy class, the very first class I took on OU's campus, to use "qualifying language" or what certain Spiritualists call "right speak"....to use words that clearly demonstrate what I am saying is my own opinion, my own viewpoint, and to be very careful to understand that when I make statement that are regarding all people, called universal affirmations or universal negatives, that I must understand that even if one person is different, then using the word all is not applicable. 

Great talk and thank you so much Maria :-)

[James T. Hansen]

Christopher - keep telling us what you think!  That is the purpose of the course!

James T. Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor

Coordinator, Mental Health Specialization
Oakland University
Department of Counseling
450E Pawley Hall
Rochester, MI 48309

James T. Hansen website

 

 

Phone: (248) 370-3071

Email: jtha...@oakland.edu

[Christopher Harris]

Thank you yet again for your support Jeanie as you have throughout this program. And yes I agree the topic that I call All Things is fascinating, that's why it's really all I want to talk about most times. But there is a time and place for everything. Thanks again!

On Thursday, September 12, 2013, Jeanine Gruschow wrote:

Chris,

Like Maria, I appreciate your thoughts.  Looking into the heavens and marveling about our very existence is fascinating.  How we perceive, experience, create truth, know ourselves, others, and the planet….our kindnesses or transgressions toward people, animals, or our amazing planet, is all fascinating.  I enjoy the intellectual jousting that these topics inspire.  Keep sharing!

Jeanine 

On Sep 12, 2013, at 5:21 PM, Maria Mazurova <mmaz...@oakland.edu> wrote:

Hey Chris,

Thank you for sharing, I do appreciate that you are still in the program. The first time I heard you open up in our Intro class, I wanted to talk to you more about what you said but I never did, I will now.  I too have many ideas such as the ones you have mentioned that I have wondered about and not many avenues of where to share or discuss them. Personally, for me, I’m not necessarily sure this class is that place either, so I remain full of personal reflections like these (and thus, appreciate your courage in sharing your viewpoints).

To reflect on some of what you have said that stuck out in my mind:

“I'm more concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is.” 

                -When you say this, I think about a person who was born blind. A blind person may say the world, it is a dark place. In their world, this may be completely true, the truest of truths for them. Then I think of a dog, and if it could speak, (and for these purposes I am assuming dogs really are colorblind and can only see in grey scale), a dog would tell me, the world is grey, and in the dogs world , that truth is the truest of truths. Finally, I think of myself. I am not colorblind as far as I know, and I can tell you green is green, and that is the truest of truths for me. However, when I say that, I am only saying it from the perspective that I can see a very limited slither of the actual color spectrum (at least so far discovered), and other beings can see more of it – such as snakes seeing infrared. To me, the “truth” is, green is green, and if I call green purple, people might tell me I’m colorblind, and if I say I see colors no one sees, people may tell me I’m hallucinating. The point it, “truth” is subjective, and I feel, as a human being, I have certain limits in my understanding of truth, therefore, if there was really a truth above all truths, maybe I could never truly know it from my limited perspective. I have come to accept that. There may be a truth, or there may not be, to me it is a matter of what personally fits for you, so that in a sense, becomes the only truth we can really consider truth (knowing it only really applies to our perspective).  The “problem” (though from the viewpoint of my current belief system – it’s not really a problem) that I have seen is when people are very determined to prove their truth to other people who supposedly see an inferior truth, this can become especially apparent in disagreements surrounding religion. So it’s hard for me to truly resonate with your quote about being concerned about what is, less concerned about what anyone thinks something is. Is that even a possibility? Because the second you are concerned with “what is” you are thinking about what something is (or at least I am).

“I say this because I feel that this planet is more important to the solar system then the human species is”

                -I get where you are coming from on this, even the mass extinction piece. But then I have to ask myself, what then? The earth is fascinating indeed, it has the capacity to recycle its outer shell completely, in turn eliminating all inhabitants. I’m not so worried about humans destroying the earth, it does a very good job regulating mankind in my opinion (not sure if you were there or recall, but an example I mentioned in our intro class is that ant colony regulation from the Planet Earth series where nature seemed to regulate infestations of only a particular type of ant out of dozens and created a spore to kill just the overpopulating type of ant, not the others). Also, if you look at it from the perspective of Mother Earth, it is a patient parent.

“we, as a collective of humans, need to be doing a whole lot more acting than talking”

                -I had these thoughts a few times myself. I see what you are saying. Today, I have to keep in mind, everyone learns and acts at their own pace, develops at their own level. It’s hard for me to say what one should and shouldn’t be doing, I guess I currently find myself in a more let the chips fall where they may mentality.

“betterment and advancement of not just the human condition, but the condition of all life”
                -Again here - it can be hard to say what is betterment and what is not, for me personally, I feel in order to be able to make those sorts of judgments, I would need to consider myself a person that knows best, or as you put it, destructive of not, but with a definite slice of “god-complex”.

 

The Matrix

                -Finally, The Matrix. A loaded movie, with many levels of depth. A personal favorite of mine from the movie is the sign the oracle has above a doorway g

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CNS 687 Fall 2013" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cns-687-fall-2...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cns-687-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cns-687-fall-2013.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Meaghan Moineau]

Chris, I think one of the best parts about a class like this is that we all bring a different set of beliefs, values, thoughts and feelings to the table.  We all have our own history.  We all experience the world in our own way.  I feel there is no right or wrong, just differences of opinion and experiences.  The older I get, the more grey things seem to become.  In my early 20's, things were far more black and white than they are for me now. 

 

I admire people like you and Maria who allow themselves to be candid and authentic.  It takes a lot of energy and passion to open up the way you did, and I don't think you should close the door you have opened.  Stay true to who you are, that is what I always say. 

 

Maria, I took a couple philosophy classes including a historical and philosophical foundations of music education course in my undergrad, and as the semester progressed the discussions become more intense and raw.  That class was like the music based version of this class.  It became hard to separate personal meaning-making systems from the philosophical texts we were challenged by.  What you said wasn't stereotypical, in my opinion.