Freedom To Learn
Michael Kroth • January 1, 2020
"Keep The Light On"
Let 2020 rekindle in us a joy of learning, the confidence to take some ideas for a test run, and the faith that we'll be better for it.
Photo Credit: The American Library Association
Let 2020 be a year for learning from each other new and more profound notions of the world and how we can contribute something more meaningful to it.
I can think of no better way to start a new year of Profound Living than with the reminder that deep and meaningful learning, with evolving understandings and perspectives, depends upon access to all views. This article, Supporting Intellectual Freedom Year-round: An interview with Ellie Diaz, should remind us of what is a stake - our ability to learn and to think deeply.
This is true especially for those views which we do not (yet) understand or (perhaps never) agree with. Just by looking at different perspectives both the observer and the observed (if I may draw an association from my rudimentary knowledge of entanglement theory) are affected.
But censorship, and any quelling of free speech, limits those opportunities. As I have written before, reflecting upon my first Banned Books Week reading:
"I believe that our civil liberties are at the core of what it means to be a citizen of the United States and that protecting them is one of our highest callings.
I believe that threatening the right to take a knee at a football game is more un-American and un-patriotic than taking the knee itself. Disagree. Skip the game. Burn your sneakers. Protest the protester. Protest the protesters of protesters. But respect that right to protest. Embrace it. Never try to intimidate freedom of speech. Our country started with protest.
That’s what I believe.
I believe that college campuses should be cauldrons of competing ideas where all sorts of views are presented, kicked around, discarded, accepted, modified, melted together, discounted, but always allowed and encouraged. Left, right, up, down, any “ist” or “ism”. Staid, crusade, prayed, decayed, or charade. Disruptive, instructive, inductive, productive. Bring it. In as civilized and as a useful way as possible, and non-threatening or intimidating. But bring it.
Discourse…of course…no view enforced.
Whether it takes a Grapes of Wrath to show the plight of the dirt poor refugees, migrants, who were actually citizens in our own country; The Jungle to expose immigrant labor conditions in slaughter houses; or Silent Spring to alert people to the threat to our environment, our nation and world depend on courageous writers to write the books unpopular. The books denounced. The books outrageous and irreverent and nonconforming.
The books that challenge, test, push, lift, and mortify.
Those.
Books.
Along with all the books serving other useful and beautiful purposes.
Banned Books Week is one of the most important events of the year. The American Library Association does every citizen a tremendous service in sponsoring it."
Let this year be a year to test new ideas, to have enough faith in ourselves to trust that we can handle a variety of perspectives and still hold to and to deepen the core of who we are; doing this by mixing in new ingredients, intending the result to be something much richer and more substantive than the less informed and less tested stock of knowledge we held before.
In short, let 2020 be a year for learning from each other new and more profound notions of the world and how we can contribute something more meaningful to it. Let 2020 rekindle in us a joy of learning, the confidence to take some ideas for a test run, and the faith that we'll be better for it.
Blessings all
Salam
Bedeinkatzeko
Beannachtaí
Segen
Beneficia
Let this year be a year to test new ideas, to have enough faith in ourselves to trust that we can handle a variety of perspectives.
Most of all, she is crazy about her brood. She smiles more when she’s with them. Laughs more. Enjoys more. Relaxes more. Has more fun. She just loves her family.
“…there must be millions of aging males, now slipping into their anecdotage…” ~E.B. White 1
Author's Note: I originally posted this in the Profound Bartender on April 8, 2018, and then reposted it here at Profound Living on April 25, 2018. I thought it might be a good time to repost it again.
Author's Note: This is a repost of an essay I published in 2018. I thought it was a timely topic to revisit.
“In Celtic wisdom we remember that our soul, the very heart of our being, is sacred. What is deepest in us is of God. ” ~John Philip Newell 1
We may be lights under bushels, but we can shine brightly against the dark even if we are mere candles. Together, the light may shine bright.
Silence speaks to us Listening in deep quiet… Hear what you long for! ~Patricia Leyko Connelly 1
"Elegance is the harmonious integration of simplicity, refinement, and intentionality across diverse contexts, combining timeless beauty with functional sophistication." ~ChatGPT Synthesized Definition
