The Liberal Arts Head Fake

All right. I’m a little late on this blog post, AGAIN. But it’s actually much better this way.

I think our friend Randy Pausch said it all for me. His “Last Lecture” tied up the ends of this semester so well that I almost can’t stand it. There goes that serendipity thing again.

This whole semester has been a tying up and tying-together kind of semester for me. All of my classes meshed together in incredible ways, from the obvious, like: Aristotelian arguments in Persuasion and Logic classes, to the slightly more obscure, such as: Theological perspectives in Early British Literature. The one class that really tied it all together, though? This one.

Dignity is literally everywhere, and I would NOT have been able to see that without this class. BUT HERE IS THE HEAD FAKE! This class would not have been made possible without (*drumroll*) the LIBERAL ARTS! Okay... so it wasn’t the best head fake... but I’m not Randy...

Randy’s lecture tied things up for me because of an extremely important realization I had this semester.

I have been educated.

“Well DUUHH”, you all say, “You’ve been in COLLEGE”. True. But education isn’t just about that one definition. A very wise, and very dear, friend of mine told me this: Education is realizing how much you DON’T know. I could not have been educated (in either sense) without the Liberal Arts, and this class really helped me to realize that. This class breached walls and built bridges across all disciplines. I mean, heck, look at how many different MAJORS were in our class! The amount of things that I don’t know really hit me...hard.

With that being said, here is the conclusion that I have come to. Dignity can only exist where there are relationships between people, and those relationships require us to reach across the gaps that separate us as humans. We cannot see the dignity in someone else unless we can understand the multi-dimensional experience of being human (cue the Liberal Arts education).

Through the Liberal Arts, and subsequently capstone classes like this one, we are given the ability to discover ways to build new bridges and make new connections. Reaching across those gaps forces you to learn about yourself and others, and brings out the dignity inherent in all people. Dignity doesn’t stop in one discipline because learning never stops.

Dignity, then, also becomes group education. The recognition that you can’t do it alone. Great changes, while they may start with one person and one idea, can only come to fruition when they are communicated to a group. It is also important (and, as Dr. B said, intrinsic to us as humans) to be self-reflective, but we cannot EXIST without connections to other people. So does that hermit in the woods have dignity? In his own way, maybe... but he needs other people to make it full- fledged.

Randy placed a lot of emphasis on these connections. He reached across disciplines and maneuvered around his brick walls, and achieved his DREAMS. I think we can all agree that his was a life well-lived.

I’d like to end this reflection with a song (stand on your head if you’re shocked). You don’t have to listen to it, and you might think it’s a stretch, but it’s my way of wrapping up and I want to share.

This is a song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (I can see the excitement in your eyes). It’s called “Lost River” and all this thinking about bridges and connections made me think of this song. I feel like Dignity is the Lost River, in this valley where no one goes... and we need to come back together and gather ‘round the pot-bellied stove and build us some new bridges... and hope we're not too far down to return to higher ground.

There's a lost river that flows

In a valley where no one goes,

Where the wild water's rush

Rumbles deep in the hush.

Gone far from there now,

Lord I'll be back somehow

To where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

Refrain:

Oh, lost river, now I'm coming back

To the pot-belly stove, where the firewood's all stacked

Oh Quebec girl, go with me,

Oh my belle, my fleur de lis,

Where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

Now everybody knows

Where that lost river flows

It's someplace he's lost

Behind bridges that he's crossed

Well, he'd like to return,

But his bridges are all burned

And he's much too far down

To return to higher ground

(Refrain)

Oh lost river, far over the ridge

Now is it too late for me to build me a new bridge? 

To the bright golden time

When her love was still mine

And the world was still wild

Like the heart of a child

(Refrain)

Where the lost river winds

In the shadow of the pines

 Thank you ALL for such a wonderful semester. Good luck with everything... horse farms... Kenya...bumming around.... you all deserve the best.