While it was a rainy day in Cincinnati, it was sunny inside Evanston Academy. I thought about Plato’s image of wisdom growing as we exit a dark cave and gradually climb into the sunlight of mental clarity. What did the child philosophers teach me? I should continue spending time in classrooms with small chairs. I can gorge on simple pleasures, sunup, sundown.
Read MoreMental clarity makes a true friend for life, showing up at every turn. The contents of our minds drive our lives—whatever shape it’s in, the mind is behind the steering wheel of our thoughts and actions. I know from experience about this friendship and count on it. I also know that mental clarity can play a devilish game of hide and seek—that maintaining clarity takes work and persistence. We’re lost without it. Confusion leads us blindly, nowhere, bad wheres.
Read MoreAuthor and Philosopher Marietta McCarty answers five questions about the value of philosophy in this guest blog that appears on EnableEducation.com. In both of your philosophy books for adults, you discuss the role that philosophy can play in everyday life. What was your inspiration for taking this “grass roots” approach? My study of philosophy in college was exhilarating, liberating, and a true liftoff. It seeped into my every day easily, unasked ...
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“Give me hope, help me cope / with this heavy load,” George Harrison sang and strummed with three of his British friends in 1973. Wrong weighs like a wet blanket on our souls. Performing his song years later, Harrison’s prayer remains ours: “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” Hearts seek light—hands want holding.
twenty-twenty-five / give us love…connect the dots… / our new-fashioned plans