Reminders.

Things about which I don't want to forget to tell the people that care about my experiences.

Abortion debate in the Union. It was interesting. There was a lady who had 17 abortions.

President's drinks: posh, self-important, self-indulgent.

It was the most fantastically pretentious and wildly exclusive formal party the other night (appropriate for Oxford). I managed to find someone in a room full of movers and shakers with whom I could talk extensively about Wes Andersen and (500) Days of Summer. It was a good night.

We went to Spring Awakening. It's a particularly entertaining show, though the performers weren't incredible.

Cloudy day, windy and cold. I sat down in an inlet in the Old City Walls inside of New College where the wind wouldn’t hit me so hard. As I sat down and opened a can of orange soda, the sun broke through the clouds! (this rarely happens) and as I sat there sipping my drink, the sun warmed me and the Old City Walls sheltered me. It had been quite sometime since I felt a warm sun on my skin. Perfect.

"The genius of prophetic discourse is that it sublimates mundane experience into universal meaning through the multiple semantic potential of symbols."

Justice Antonin Scalia.

He was sharp for an old man. Made good points on his job being to uphold the constitution, not to be a moral ruler. He actually denounced judges as moral rulers in his speech (which makes sense as he does not favor activist judges, calling himself an originalist). Etc. etc.

New College Basketball Champions! We took a photo and it’s being framed and going up on the sports complex wall (or something). No big deal—just a part of New College forever.

Dublin: Isaacs Hostel—borrow bikes, guitars, books, pool cue/balls, table tennis gear, boom box.

Edinburgh: Cowgate Tourist Hostel—like an apartment! Great. Across from a silly pub with awful Irish rappers. We also learned about the origin of the term “sh*tfaced.” Chamber pots+alcohol=fecal-covered face. Oops.

Ok.

That's all.

Maybe next time I'll do a good job.

pack a pipe, pick a gal, and commit

As Alan and I walked down Temple Bar in Dublin, not impressed by the atmosphere of bar-hopping twentysomethings (most of whom were American), we spotted a man smoking a pipe. He was youngish, looked some type of foreign, and given the context we assumed spoke English. Having seen quite a few men—particularly in Oxford—who make smoking a pipe look like child’s play, we moved to ask him his secret.

My question was responded to with several mumbled English words strung together amidst a thick Italian accent, demonstrating his lack of proficiency. I tried several more times, but quickly gave up and started moving on. He kept us there, insisting that he understand the problem.

Alan explained with clearer, slower English. He involved more gesticulating and simple explanations. (We were now aware of the language barrier.) The man realized our question, and was pleased to be able to share some advice.

“You must… follow the pipe. You must wait. It depends on many things—tobacco, weather… yeah…”

He discussed the superiority of Italian pipes (though he admitted he was smoking an English pipe—he was willing to make a concession on the quality of the English wood).

He was quite clearly Italian, by the way.

Appropriately, he then related the process, the experience, of smoking a pipe to a woman.

“Is… is like a woman. You have a woman? [Gestures to his own wedding band.] I have a woman. You have to work. You have to, you know, follow her. Is like that. It will change everything… but it’s good. Is a partner. Your pipe is a partner. You must wait. Get to know your pipe. Is simple.”

I love this wisdom.

The most complex and challenging things are essentially simple, at least in the response they demand—they require attentive patience and that’s the only option. Even if it doesn't work, it's still the only option.

While this insight might not light your pipe—it might not get you a 2^nd date or maintain fidelity—it’s honest.

So, there you go:

Smoking a pipe is simple—

Just like relationships

I remember getting sick on a backpacking trip in the mountains of Colorado. We were several days into the trip—five or six—and camped at the base of Mount Harvard (proudly one of the tallest in the continental US). We had hit the trail pretty hard that day. I started feeling sick around mile 11, as we pushed passed the planned stopping point so we could peak the next day without packs. I remember hoping that it was a bug of some sort rather than altitude sickness. I didn’t want to get sick from a change in height. That’s pathetic, right? And anyway, I drank plenty of water. Practically too much water, I felt.

I was glad the next morning when I woke up and my spirits had returned. Indeed the height had gotten the better of me.

I enjoy how self-mutilating pride can be. Sometimes hubris points out or even hopes for faults, troubles, weaknesses—negative things in general—in view of other people so that they will know the difficulties you must overcome. It’s a backward sort of self-glorification.

But I suppose perseverance appears as a virtue.

And success despite hurdles (however tawdry those hurdles be) is something to be imitated, the mark of a giant.

Hubris—have you no shame?

The little things in life get you through the day.

In the philosophy faculty library many individuals were studying, each utterly engrossed in their lofty thinking puzzles, rhetoric, or otherwise seemingly impractical application of complex cognitive tasking. A crescendo in the patter of rain falling upon the roof made traitor our loyalty to thought as we stopped—

and listened.

Oh, the appreciation of sound.

The little things in life get you through the day.

A tutorial completed

I will now summarize several papers I've written that each have a tremendous and affecting background. Treat it as you will.

I wrote a psychology paper on pure altruism.

I concluded that it cannot exist. Humanity is too biologically set to self-preservation, self-interest, for any action to not be fundamentally motivated by this. (Interestingly, even bacteria act as a united force out of self-interest. Self preservation leads to cooperation, else they would die out before they count mount a successful attack.)

That said, it cannot be proven that all motivation is fundamentally self-interested and functionally some actions are altruistic. So for practical reasons (and to maintain hope in humanity), sure, altruistic actions exist.

The next day, I had a tutorial in the philosophy of religion. We were discussing the source of morality and if God is the only capable lawgiver.

I concluded that rationality begets morality (cf. Kant), but in a theistic context, God would have created the universe and everything in it, ergo God is the source of morality from rationality.

My next psychology paper was on the health benefits of religion. Living in community is important to a healthy life!

My last psychology paper was on religious prejudice and if indeed conflict attributed to religion is due to the religious ingroup or another ingroup.

I concluded that religion is simply the most salient identity, but that this conflict would occur even outside of religion just under a different banner.

Humanity is depraved whether or not they say a deity commanded their behavior.

And with that, I have completed my Primary Tutorial at Oxford University.