Random Question: Old School Vocabulary Building

How did people learn difficult words before dictionaries were invented? And even after they were invented, were they readily available? How did Thomas Jefferson learn his vocabulary?

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
~Abraham Lincoln

Damn Lincoln, you are fresh. I haven't been following the presidential elections this year, but what happened to the days when people said what they believed? Especially politicians. People are so vague with their words now.

A small anecdote:
I asked my pupil, "Why would the colonists be upset if they were allowed to trade only with England?"
His response, "Because then they couldn't trade with other countries."
My reply, "You basically repeated to me what I said to you. Do you see how you twisted the wording around?"
His epiphany, "Oh, yes, I get it. Well then, they were upset because they didn't have a variety of people to trade with."

WHAT ARE SCHOOLS TEACHING THESE DAYS? Schools are becoming instructors of bullshitting.

Everybody is too afraid of being offensive. But when did it become inappropriate to talk about God? If I believe in God, and a non-believer listens to me speak about God, why should he feel offended? I'm not imposing any beliefs upon him; I'm stating what I believe. Who was the last politician courageous enough to talk about his ideas with his religion and allow it to reflect in his speeches? Or is religion not so important anymore?

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

Yes, His will be done.
Please let it be something I like.

My Love for Philosophy

If you get a chance, read Bertrand Russell's "On the Value of Philosophy." I feel like he phrased everything perfectly.

You won't find answers in philosophy. When I took my first philosophy class, and we read passages from Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, etc., I went in thinking, well, maybe I'll get all straightened out. Interestingly, I didn't get straightened out in the sense I expected, but I feel much more at peace.

Did you know the study of space was once part of philosophy? Did you know the study of the human mind was part of philosophy? So basically, philosophy is the study of the unknown, for which we don't have the answers. Once we find those definite answers to those questions, they become placed in science, such as astronomy and psychology. So, philosophy isn't really as obscure or mysterious or profound as most people believe it to be.

Here is one of my favorite passages from Russell:

"Apart from its utility in showing unsuspected possibilities, philosophy has a value--perhaps its chief value--through the greatness of the objects which it contemplates, and the freedom from narrow and personal aims resulting from this contemplation. The life of the instinctive man is shut up from within the circle of his private interests: family and friends may be included, but the outer world is not regarded except as it may help or hinder what comes within the circle of instinctive wishes. In such a life, there is something feverish and confined, in comparison with which the philosophic life is calm and free. The private world of instinctive interests is a small one, set in the midst of a great and powerful world which must, sooner or later, lay our private world in ruins. Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the whole outer world, we remain like a garrison in a beleagured fortress, knowing that the enemy prevents escape and that ultimate surrender is inevitable. In such a life there is no peace, but a constant strife between the insistence of desire and the powerlessness of will. In one way or another, if our life is to be great and free, we must escape this prison and this strife."

"Knowledge is a form of union of Self and not-Self."

Just some food for thought.

The Winding Down

If I could go back and start college over again, I would do things differently. Even though chemistry wasn't that bad, I don't think I would have majored in it.

I missed the registration deadline for seniors last weekend, so I'm registering with the juniors this weekend. It just hit me a few minutes ago, while I was trying to select my classes, that the fall is going to be my last semester. While I was looking at the writing classes, I realized how many classes I wish I could have taken and what I'm leaving behind. I wish I could stay here for another two years and take all the classes I want to try, from pottery to filmmaking to journalism to political science.

If I could start over, or even from the middle, I would major in philosophy and minor in theater or film. Or maybe I wouldn't. But I wouldn't worry about getting a double major or try to major in something that might help me later. I wish I could have tried more things. I wish I could leave school with a wider knowledge base than I have now.

I know I am going to miss college cause I miss it already and it isn't even over yet.